In my mind regional refers to range of the aircraft, not size. Regional jets are not called regional because they are small. They were orginally designed to fly "regional" routes, in one region of the country to feed hubs; as opposed to say, transcontinental routes. Are DTW-AUS/IAH/DFW regional routes? I fly them all the time on the 900. People are quick to call the 900 "just a regional jet" because it has tail-mounted engines, a boarding door that wasn't designed for jetbridges and small overhead bins. The same people will say that they E170/175 is not, but they are essentially the same size. Both the CR9 and E175 have more range than a DC-9...there is nothing "regional" about them. CPZ flies the E175 from DTW to Mexico for god's sake!

A Dash 8 flying 70-80 people from MBS/FNT/CLE to DTW is a regional airplane flying regional routes as the namesake was intended to indicate. Just because its large doesn't automatically make it the same kind of threat to mainline as the CR9 and E175. It lacks the performance to replace most a/c types in the mainline domestic fleet. Though I will grant you that NWA does use DC-9's and Airbii on some of those routes I mentioned.

Having said all that, Im not at all for more contract flying. I wish there was no DCI and we were all Delta pilots flying under one certificate, brand and CBA. The point of what I said earlier was that we have to think of things realistically.