If he's "new to the aviation world," I'm gonna go out on a limb and say he doesn't have the time to go straight to a major. The majors like to see turbine time (and a lot of them prefer turbine PIC time). There are several ways to get that time so you can move on to a major. Regionals are just one of those ways, so don't just narrow it down to that unless you're crazy like me and enjoy the pressure of an airline.
