Any businessman would also know that early termination clauses are in most contracts.

I feel like I get beat with the stick while OO eats my carrot.

You know this already (almost) happened. Inc told United that Expressjet would keep flying for United if United paid up and Expressjet was profitable. United bought C5 to do as you said but found the environment harder than expected and for reliability reasons came back to the table with inc and Expressjet.
Until then inc was expecting all the 145s to be gone and Expressjet be a 700/900 airline for Delta and American.
This is all changing very fast.

C5 just didn’t have the scale and experience to succeed in such a rapid ramp up. Hence why XJT is a great fit for what UA needs.

....about 5 yrs ago. Not any more. United **** in their own bed by trying to manipulate their regional feed to squelch the upsurge in spinal character towards fighting for quality changes in RJ QOL and pay. Eagle voted no to concessions with us I th vote heard around the ALPA world. Now not only does XJT pay for that, but United is paying for trying to alter-ego us out of the market. The only winner so far has been OO, Spirit, Alligiant (2 airlines hiring 0-TPIC to narrowbody aircraft), and the other regionals our FO’s are going to after a year or so to do street captain. All of this weakening United as a result.

Possibly.... Both C5 and YV are struggling to staff IAD. XJT has many resources on the CRJ side. I would agree that XJT has an opening in IAD. I am not exactly sure why it needs to be CRJ’s unless United has those jets becoming available from another base. If SGU’s past behavior is a predictor of future behavior, I would expect OO to open a CRJ base at IAD for United before XJT though. OO is already lining up flying into IAD on the CRJ200 for EAS.

I am on the side of believing that XJT is being set up to be sold to United once the American business is wound down. Providing severance packages points to XJT as a going concern, which only makes sense if XJT is either going to remain in business or is going to be sold.

UA is shifting UAX out of EWR to IAD. There’s all the 145s they need, but they probably want some bigger RJs there as well.

And, Republic or SkyWest can’t staff United’s bigger RJ of choice, the E175 out of IAD? Good rumor though.

Not a rumor...

http://newsroom.united.com/2018-05-14-United-Airlines-Expands-East-Coast-Schedule-Maximizing-New-York-and-Washington-D-C-Hubs

I’m guessing Republic will stay in EWR. I haven’t heard anything about Skywest at IAD other than your post. Not discounting it, but if they want to buy XJT, they will need to give us a home.

I assume United will wait to buy XJT until after the American CRJ side is wound down. When United buys XJT, they will spin its pilots up on the 175 - not the 900. United will want a clean company without a lot of unresolved liabilities. Hence, the severance packages.

In the announcement you posted, United announces increased 175 flying out of Newark (Republic) and EAS 200 flying out of Dulles (SkyWest). I don’t see any large RJ adds to Dulles. Where do you see that in this article?