[throwaway_exer]

The FAA has a policy of "one safety standard for all airlines" for passenger flights.

Obviously that's nonsense, as regional and major airlines have totally different resources.

I don't fly regionals, and I tell my family not to.

Before August 2015, regionals used low-hour pilots sleeping at the airport, resulting in the Colgan accident.

After August 2015 (post-Colgan), Congress increased pilot experience requirements to ATP minimums of 1,500 hours. All of the regional airlines are in the process of closing down as a result.

[ubernostrum]

Well, the other thing affecting the regionals is that while lots of people have the skills to be pilots and many even have the training, there are increasingly few who have the skills and training and are willing to put up with the wages and conditions of the regionals. And since the regionals are the only way to get funneled into the mainline structure of the big US carriers, we get the much-discussed "pilot shortage".

[throwaway_exer]

If by "increasingly few" you mean "virtually none" in 2016, then you're correct.