There is nothing funnier than watching guys from Expressjet, Skywest, Pinnacle and Republic rip on Gojet for being too cheap and stealing their flying. Where the heck do you think your flying came from? Well it came from Air Whiskey, Mesaba, Comair, and ACA because you underbid them. Where did their flying come from? It came from mainline because the original "regional airlines" were able to do that flying cheaper than mainline.
The regional airlines are all about cost. Service has jack to do with anything unless you have two airlines of equal cost. Because of this regional airlines have a cycle. You start the airline, underbid somebody else for flying, grow dramatically until your costs get so high that someone else underbids you or you try and move your business into another arena.
If running a good airline and customer service were so important, Mesaba, ACA, Comair, and Air Whiskey would be the largest regional airlines in the country. The most famous last words in this industry are "well even though our costs are more we provide great customer service." That is the kiss of death.
I'll make a few predictions for you. Gojets is going to grow a lot, Pinnecabla will be lucky to hang on to the 41 Mesaba 900s unless they make major pay concessions (which I don't see happening), Skywest is about to have a serious reckoning, but will probably survive because they have good management and some cash, same for ASA/Expressjet, Republic will probably be OK because Beford is pretty much of an SOB and will use the Pinnacle situation to scare 50%+1 into signing a new agreement that is cost neutral. We'll see what the future holds for Air Whiskey, Piedmont, and PSA as their costs are increasing relative to everyone else. Also all the Gojet guys that want to will be moving on to mainline just like everybody else when they meed the hiring minumums.
When it comes to the regionals you need to find one where you can upgrade, build your turbine PIC and get the hell out because sooner or later your company will get on the bad side of the cost curve and will be toast.
Mainline doesn't want honest to god regional partners any more. I hesitate to even call them airlines. In the beginning they were, with their own ticketing, ground ops and marketing. Now they are little more than sources of crews and aircraft (in some cases just the crews) that are easily interchanged at the whim of the bean counters at mainline.
The only way this will ever get fixed is to put all the flying back at mainline which isn't going to happen unless the government or mainline pilots force it to happen. So quit worrying about somebody else stealing your flying (because you "stole" it from somebody else), quit worrying about Gojets because they are just doing what your airline did a while back, and worry about building your credentials to get the hell out as fast as you can.
Rant over
