General,
I've been pondering something lately, and want your measured opinion. Do you think the RJ camel can ever be pushed all the way back out of the tent? (Let's face it -- the camel has been fully in the tent and eating your couscous for years). From all you say, it seems like we're on the same page, except that you're already at the major airline, and I'm at a regional (albeit one of the best) hoping that it won't turn into a lifetime career, or at least that if it does turn out to be my "career," it actually lasts long enough for me to retire. My position naturally leads me to a conflict of interest. Yes, I want the majors to grow and prosper -- but not at the expense of my here-and-now job.
From my perspective, mainline ALPA MECs really dropped the ball back in the early 90's when RJs first started to appear. Instead of holding out their fingers in the sign of the cross as if to ward off vampires, they should have welcomed the Barbie Jets with open arms as the new, entry-level mainline jets -- EVEN if first-year pay at the majors dropped quite a bit. I hope this isn't merely 20/20 hindsight. I'd like to think that at least some groups saw the RJ writing on the wall. Point is, I'd MUCH rather being flying a CRJ-700 at United [or insert your major airline of preference here] (even for the same money that I make now) than SkyWest!
Since this sounds basically like what you're advocating at Delta, I wonder if you think this is really possible. As the majors regain strength, what do you think is the probability that regionals as we now know them will begin to shrink, and smaller "mainline" jets will go to the majors?
To use another cliche, I don't think it's completely possible to put the genie back in the bottle, but I'd like to think that these EMB-190 size airplanes will go to the majors instead of the regionals. I think the CRJ-700s, 705s and 900s and the EMB-170s are a lost cause, even up to, but maybe not including, 90 seats.
I'd like to hear your guess.
I'll venture to say there's only a 25 - 30% chance that EMB-190 class aircraft will not appear at the regionals.