Do RJ's hurt Major airlines?
No, they made the modern hub and spoke airline. Pre deregulation flying MD-80's to Bakersfield days are far behind us. The only successful airline models are Southwest point to point (and getting less point to point everyday) and the hub and spoke. This is what the market demanded and that is what the flying public got.
Why don't you get all the jet flying at mainline?
Because the airlines, the pilot unions and the pilot's flying at the mainline don't really want it. The guy who said that the regionals is the new B scale is right on. Why would a guy flying at the mainline invest any bargaining capital in bring back the smaller jets? He has a job. The only reason we are talking about this is because the "seniority treadmill" has stopped (because of the economy and age 65). ALPA gets paid on both ends, so why fight it. In two or three years, it will fade into the background.
Refuse to hire RJ pilots?
Not to sound like a broken record, but the unions don't hire pilots. Why would an airline not hire someone who is doing the same job for years and thousands of hours? Who else? The military guys already go to the front of the line and there are fewer every day. Do you want a UAV pilot instead of a RJ pilot. Remember that all of the RJ pilots are union paying members. If I were flying at a regional and ALPA said don't hire me, how long will ALPA be at my regional? Even if I got on, would I all of sudden become the rah rah union guy knowing that you tried to stick it to me?
Start hiring turboprop guys and FAR 135?
Let's see, I could choose someone who is doing the very same job for me or one of my competitors or I could go out on a limb and hire an "unknown quantity". Maybe the guy's great, maybe not. Will I invest the money to find out? No.
Minimum time requirements?
Sounds good on paper. First, the only reason why total times were low was because we ran low on pilots. That won't be a problem for awhile, until the numbers drop. I believe in the almighty buck and those universities need to draw in people, so I think there will always be that exception to the rule. It may not be Gulfstream, but it may be Purdue or UND. Worse case, there will be someone with a C-172 or PA28 running 1000 hr time builder specials.