does that mean Virgin now will operate the ATRs outright, and not through a wetlease arrangement as before?
Yes, everyone I know there is now a Virgin employee and everything that refers to Skywest is apparently being removed (from paint, to manuals to email signatures).
If cadets will be able to go from the ATR to jets without any issues in the next five years, I'd expect similar opportunities for others. But then again, it could end up like the Qlink/mainline relationship (or lack thereof!).