apacau,
It sure is an obvious link up and if you look back when all three airlines (REX, Alliance and Skywest) were launched all three said they were looking at an international link. Even blind freddy could see SIA would be the one.
Here's my prediction of what role each regional will play when SIA start their domestic operation.
Skywest; They continue pretty much the same as when Ansett were flying. However they will operate 2-3 F100s on regional routes in WA, that were once operated by Ansett BA146s.
Alliance; They will operate a small fleet (2-4) E120s and around 10 F100's, management have already signed off on the 4 extra, with the first due to ferry into BNE very soon. They will operate the two class F100's on primary leisure routes from both SYD and BNE. They will go head-to-head with the 717 and the 146s operated by Qantaslink. They small fleet of E120s will compete with Qantaslink on regional routes in QLD that need/support two airlines. ie BNE-GLA and BNE-EMD. Alliance will become a "mini" East-West".
REX; They will continue to expand their regional operations in NSW, VIC, TAS and SA. They will become "the country airline" serving the needs of rural Australia (well at least in NSW,VIC and SA). In time (2-3 years) they will operate an all Saab fleet and will have a sizeable share of the regional market in Southern Australia.
It may appear that I have shown favouritism to Alliance, I have in a way but only because they have the structure (ie HCAOC with jets)in place and can expand this jet operation quickly without the hazzle of waiting on CASA. I have been told Alliance would like to add more jet routes but only having 2 F100s is holding them back. The current 2 F100s are very busy operating the BNE-ROK, BNE-TVL and BNE-NLK-SYD RPT routes along with the TVL-CENT charter.