Yesterday, the CEO of Commutair resigned. They are partially owned (like ExpressJet) by UAL. One rumour is that Commutair and XPJet will be merged. Another rumour is flow through from XJ and/or CA/XJ to UAL... Currently, XJ is having a net loss of about 50 pilots/month. I think UAL was counting on those pilots almost all going to UAL, and, with the current situation, UAL realized that they needed to own a regional and have flow through so as not to suffer greatly from a pilot shortage.
My airline is in contract talks, and this will help us a LOT, as XJ was our #1 source of pilots the last 2-3 years. With UAL buying them, and probably giving them a flow through, a lot less of them will leave for airlines like mine.