My point about no whipsaw games with the 170/175's was that Bedford has tried to avoid any direct competition between his 175's and someone else's. In the past, this has meant maintaining a monopoly on the aircraft type in the US. When NW/Compass acquired the fleet type, BB stayed away from the red tails. Whereas there are sometimes 3 or more regional lift providers flying CRJ's for a given major simultaneously, there have not been simultaneous operations of the 170/175 anywhere (except during the acquisition of MidAtlantic a/c).

As for route coverage, the whole point of Delta's plan to reduce regional lift is to not have regionals covering as many routes. Certain S5 routes may be covered by DC-9's, by compass A/c, or just go away all together. Likewise, some Compass routes will go away, or be covered by other mainline A/C.

Again, this is just my gut feeling. For all I know RAH could buy the new Delta, or even the DOT and FAA next week (the government is so far behind in debt that it could happen...). Any contract can be terminated at any time...it is just the cost that varies. IF RAH were given a choice by Delta to either have the CHQ contract cancelled (and S5 fleet permanently stopped at 16 planes), or to have the 16 S5 175s go away early and the CHQ contract remain intact, you may be surprised at what Bedford would chose. Those 145's do bring in quite a bit of revenue.