I think there is cause for oncern here.......
As an example, for every four RJ's that United Express recieves the United looses one more mainline station.
The Bread and butter of most airlines are the business traveler. A lot of pilots might not know it, but many airlines book large numbers of seats weekly on scheduled flights.
It is a simple manner to scour the reservation system and look for block customers and then offer them the BBJ as an alternative.
Avolar at United would have done that. Surfed our res system and stold our bread and butter.
United is rapidly becoming a virtual airline. When I was a F/0 on the 747 out of JFK in the early nineties, we had 85 F/O's on the airplane. Great trips, a perfect month for me was a trip to Europe, a trip to South America, and a trip to Asia.
After 1 year after code sharing, we had 27 First Officers on the airplane at JFK.
United is content with selling tickets on the Deathstar Alliance or a fee for departure basis with the United Express, and would rather do that then operate its own airline.
This way, United buy no fuel, pay no pilots, put up with no flight attendents, and still makes a profit.
It is a very grievious situation here evolving in the US. What management is establishing are in fact Alter Ego airline to avoid current labor costs.
Those BBJ's and RJ operators of today, **willl** , in the future, no doubt operate 757/767 class aircraft.