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Old 11-21-2011 | 03:09 PM
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Emma Goldman's Avatar
Emma Goldman
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Originally Posted by afterburn81
Just what management wants you to think. This is part of the regional mentality and why it can never improve. As of lately, new hire classes have been full of mostly low experience. But that's not really supposed to be the norm. It's hard to attract pilots with experience due to the low pay. But nothing about the job and what you do is entry level. First officers fly CRJ's in the same manner under the same sky, rules, physics and limitations as a 737 at a major. It's not uncommon to see people in new hire classes that have more experience than the training pilots themselves out on the line. This goes for majors and regionals.

So that regional airline being an entry level job is a pretty arrogant statement. Does that mean legacy carriers are entry level too because new hires have less experience than line captains at a regional? It would be an interesting dynamic if people were hired based on their experience. However, due to the seniority system there is no such thing as an entry level job in the airline environment.
When regionals have "bridge programs" or "fast track" deals with universities, then yes, a regional FO is indeed an entry level job and a fresh grad into the right seat of an RJ should make no more than around 20K. The only way a regional would not be entry level is if the mins were raised to at least 2000 hours. That won't happen, so it will remain an entry level job.