Jayray,

I agree with you that both regionals and mainline will shrink in the future. All the indications are there pointing out that as senior pilots retire, those slots will be taken up by existing mainline pilots or phased out through JVs and Joint Alliance operations with foreign airlines. Many aviation analysts think UAL, AA and USAirways' future is in doubt, especially UAL and USAirways. If UAL goes under in 2010 or 2011, that will dump more than 7700 pilots on the street. DAL is supposed to be overstaffed by about 1500 pilots by some analysts after the merger. It does not look good going forward. Regionals flying for DAL is supposed to be cut from 9 regionals down to aroung 6 or less. I suspect by 2011, there will be fewer than 6 regionals flying for DAL.