Thank you, somebody see's the bigger picture. My read on the industry is that this is the tip of the iceberg. Delta owns Comair, NW owns their regional, USair own two small regionals... AMR owns Eagle... then there are the Republics, TSA, Mesa's and such who will fly in anybody's colors so long as the execs can make a buck and exploit low time pilots by giving jet jobs in exchange for low pay and slave conditions.

The Legacy carriers will expand their use of MULTIPLE regional feeders. Places like Comair, Eagle, Compass will find themselves being beaten up at the contract table by increased threats to transfer more flying to independant subcontractors for less money.

The sad thing is this. All this flying will get done anyway. IF the TSA, Mesa, Republics did not exist, the wholly owned regionals would simply expand to cover the flying. Higher paying jobs, better QOL, better benefits, and a slowing of the race to the bottom.