You are right Sailing, we have to capture that flying for mainline. As a new airline guy I come with a different frame of reference than you more senior guys. I think our scope focus on # of seats is completely wrong. I think we should focus on length of leg or population of city. There is no reason a Regional airline should fly from JFK to ATL. Those are two mainline hubs and not even close to the same region.
Our focus on seats will beget Comair or Compass flying Embs coast to coast. New RJs are much more efficient than older mainline jets. Our objective has to be either have those jets at the mother ship or we prevent them from being used to thier potential by scope. If subcontractors, and let's face it, that is what the regionals are, are limited to say 150 mile radius those new rjs will not be nearly as attractive. Let the regionals fly regional routes.
As for Texas and the 9, I hope our network geniouses can move some 88s to longer routes like NYC to AUS and let the 9s fly ATL to BHM. There is so much money to be made in Texas. Let's take it back!