Something is fishy with RAH. It is almost as if they know they are going to lose some flying soon, because they are beefing up way too much on flying they just cannot staff.

Delta extended the 145 flying for a few more years which completely disrupted the clown show in HQ. The plan was to staff the new flying with displaced 145 pilots. Oops. Anyways, a rumor floating around here is that Mother Delta is doing this on purpose to allow BB to choke on the ashes of this continuing failure which will give Delta the right to immediately terminate the contract. In my limited world view, that seems plausible. Delta is pretty ruthless when dealing with their feeders.

Its nothing personal its just business!
If a supplier cannot produce product someone is buying, then its time to find another supplier.

Thats what I kind of figured.

"It's just business"

If anything, the bulk of those new airplanes are for their competition. It'll at least continue to disrupt the United network at the very least. Maybe Delta has reached their breaking point with Republic. But wouldn't it be easier for them to terminate the contract if they just flat-out didn't meet the performance requirements?

Competition? Like SkyWest, who has another 143 E-175s on order, and 200 more options? Maybe I understood the context wrong but you make it sound like Republic is gobbling up contracts to keep the competition at bay. If they can't have it, no one can have it.

Not their competition on a regional level. Remember, Republic has 50 new planes (net gain of 20) coming for United. There are like 6 new ones coming for Delta. By Delta extending the 145's until 2020+, that ruins BB's staffing strategy. If the bulk of the new flying is coming for United, by Delta stepping in, most of that additional flying will be a colossal failure.

You need to take a step back and think outside of the SkyWest cult :D

I get it now. Sorry. But I believe Delta is also putting themselves in a bind in the process.

I think it's more of a "if we're not happy, you won't be happy", as in both DL and UA being upset. I would say that Delta is more sensitive to performance, or lack of.