Originally Posted by Oldfreightdawg

Anythings possible. At first APA didn't want anything to do with EGL, then when it looked like APA was changing their mind, EGL ALPA didn't want anything to do with APA or AA. All the players have to be on the same page if anything like this has a chance of working--right now they are not and it doesn't appear that they are moving toward it either. Personally, I think all the flying RJ and otherwise should be done by one company. Whether that's EGL merging with AA, or APA doing all of it or most of it.

To me, it seems foolish to spread flying in a single network among several regional affiliates. If you were to believe all the crap pouring from Wall Street financiers and corporate board rooms about the "synergies" of combining airlines, then why would airline managements pursue arrangements which would spread the work over several more departments than necessary? i.e. every airline has it's own dispatch, it's own maintenance, it's own scheduling staff, etc. Even though regional employees don't enjoy the same level of compensation as their mainline counterparts--it's difficult to reconcile having many more lower paid employees than fewer better paid folks doing more work.

Jet Blue doesn't farm out it's 100 seat flying, SWA doesn't even have a regional affiliate--both airlines are fairly successful. Coincidence?