dragon man
As said earlier, it's not always about flying hours. Regional flying is always limited by duty hours, as very few sectors are greater than one hour. Can only speak for the props (and when I left late last year), but Eastern and Sunstate pilots were pretty much flying 19 or 20 days out of every 28, and averaging four sectors per day. I keep in touch with many of the crew and little has changed. Something else to remember is that the increased workload that the 737 crews are flying is relatively recent. The type of workload that I described earlier started making it's appearance around four years ago at the link, it was common when I left. Ever since the idiots that run the place decided that they only needed 8 pilots for each aircraft (4 Capts, 4 FO's.).
And don't forget the pay. A 10 year Q400 captain has a base around 130k. Allowances (even with the increased workload) are probably only another 25k on top of that. So quite a bit less than a 737 FO.
Looking at the big picture, once this QF academy starts and is up and running, producing 100 cadets a year.
I see a number of these cadets going straight to the B7378 as F/O's, others may go to the Dash 8 or as Second Officers.
Jetstar cadets are going straight to the A320 as F/O's, i see QF doing the same.
From a pure observer's point of view, i see this happening without any doubt.
I've seen a lot of your comments. I'll be kind and say that you're being a little naïve if you believe this.