You may be right, I have no idea and honestly, at this stage in the game I don't even care all that much anymore. However, a few things. As I understand it, Continetal (and all the parent airlines of the regionals) have no liability for any happening at the regional level. Will this be changing? If the liability is too high for the regionals then it is too high for mainline too. If that is the case we will all be out of a job soon.

Secondly, the new FAA regulations will hurt the profit levels of what companies? The regionals or mainline? The new regulations may rise the the cost of doing business for the regionals but mainline doesn't care. Mainline doesn't get any profit from either the wholly owned or the contract carriers, they are both fee for departure. It doesn't raise the cost of doing business for mainline. So neither of your points are really relevant to the argument you are making. Maybe Delta wants out of the regional business, I have no idea but you are going to have to come up with better theories.