none of this quibiling matters. Congress passed a law requiring all -121 pilots to have an ATP as of 1 Aug 2013.

What matters is how the airlines, and especially the regionals will respond to this challenge to find enough pilots to fill the seats required.

I hope that it will drive the Regionals costs up high enough, so a majority of the flying is passed on to the majors, and most of the regional flying goes away.

cliff
SYD