As Pimp daddy says, there will only be one Dash 8 operator and one 717 operator by 2004.
Unfortunately, and this is not a critisism or bagging of anyone, all 146 ops were put on runs that Qantas had no way of making money on using 737's, and as it has turned out the 146's don't make money either. They have been very economical for Qantas on these routes, but because of the routes they are on, the only "regional operations" that consistently made a profit up until the ansett collapse were Eastern and Sunstate.
The so called "regional manager" put in charge of the review of regional operations, has already been given the bullet from the project, for his appalling handling of the situation.
To keep Qantaslink going, as an overall profitable operation, some sort of rationalisation was needed, but the managers have a lot to answer for in the handling of it.