I think this is the biggest problem for the AAG. If other carriers can grow into their core markets. they are in trouble. They can't rely on a cheap subsidiary to run a big portion of their schedule any more. Management will have to fold and face higher pilot costs. The longer the "negotiation" drags on the harder it will be to hire new pilots. No reason to go to AS if every other airline offers better pay and working conditions. There is only so much expansion they can do in SEA due to space constraints. The higher the fares go from SEA, the more incentive there is for competitors to come in and some of the smaller markets may be better served by other carriers.

Horizon without the Q400s will be a much smaller carrier. Some E175s coming in some distant timeframe is not going to change that. They need to keep flying something out of SEA to avoid losing gate space which restricts them from even getting back to what they had pre-COVID in other markets. Still no clear path forward for them aside from squeezing as much from SEA as they can while other carriers are focusing their attention elsewhere.