Speaking of "smaller government" per
the deregulation of the airlines: Pay no
attention to the airline issuing the
ticket or with which your regional flight
aircraft is labeled. You are most likely
being flown by a contractor
corporation to that major airline that is
not required to meet anywhere near
the same safety regulations as the
labeled major and is inspected by the
FAA. The FAA's mission statement has
always listed safety and aviation
promotion as equal priorities(until
recently changed by legislation which
only moved the statement of their
equality to later in the law). They
usually defer conflicts between the 2 to
the latter priority.
Most of those regional flights contract airline
"operators" of major airline labeled smaller planes
have contracts with those majors that allow payment
only for completed flights thereby incentivising them
to fly under less safe conditions. That creates airline
disaster opportunities which the FAA per lesser
safety standards by law has no power (or paradigm)
to prevent. There are pluses I suppose, but such
laxness by design for both pilot competence and
aircraft maintenance is not in the society's best
interest.
