This was to give the appearance of reliability. Over time these regional aircraft grew in size as airline hubs expanded and competition dwindled among the major carriers. Below is a list of many of the regional brands that evolved when regional airlines were advertised to look like the major airlines. The following is a list of former regional marketing brands operated by lesser known airlines, serving airline hub regional routes on behalf of mainline, legacy, major, or large discount carriers in the United States:  The following is a list of former marketing brands operated by smaller airlines, but using larger traditionally non-regional-type equipment such as the Boeing 727, Douglas DC9, Fokker F28, Embraer 190 E-jets, or BAE 146, serving airline hub regional routes on behalf of mainline, legacy, major, or large discount carriers, in the United States:  In North America, regional airlines are operated primarily to bring passengers to the major hubs, where they will connect for longer distance flights on the national airlines also known as flagship carriers's, larger aircraft. The smallest regional carriers have become known as feeder airlines. The separate corporate structure allows the company to operate under different pay schedules, typically paying much less than their mainline owners. Many large North American airlines, have established operational relationships with one or more regional airline companies. Their aircraft often use the aircraft livery for the company they are operating flights for. These airlines can be subsidiaries of the major airline or fly under a code sharing agreement or operating through capacity purchase agreements, with the mainline parent company financing the aircraft for the regional airline, and then placing the aircraft with the regional for very little cost. An example would be Envoy Air, which is fully owned by American Airlines Group and does business as American Eagle. Many of these large regional airlines have joined the lobbying group Regional Airline Association. This association lobbies purely for the financial interest of the corporate bodies it constitutes, not the employees of those airlines. In Canada, there are a number of regional airlines. Some of them focus on Canadian Arctic and First Nations communities, while others operate regional flights on behalf of a larger carrier, similar to their American counterparts. Some of these airlines and brands include:  The trend of branding smaller and mostly regional (in terms of geographical scope) airlines to match the mainline airlines, has led to only three main sub-brands in the United States. These three, American Eagle, Delta Connection, and United Express are the post-deregulation survivors resultant of the multiple bankruptcies and mergers of the major, legacy, mainline airlines, as well as some discount or low-cost carriers which adopted similar strategic marketing ideas.