What first tipped me off was how hiring minimums at the majors began to inflate rapidly in the mid 1990's. Back then most majors wanted around 500 hours and a commercial multi-engine license to apply.

I remember well when the minimums at Alaska Airlines jumped to 1500 total time and 750 multi-engine around 1995. If there really was sufficient demand for pilots at the majors then the minimums would have remained the same.

Had I stayed at my regional I would be making my 72K per year by now. Out of that I would have had to fund my own retirement and support a wife and six kids. As a full time regional airline captain I would still qualify for government assistance in my home state since by their measure 72K means that I would be considered as being poor.

To me that is wrong. Pilots are worth far more. The regionals are a trick to get the same work out of people for less than half of what the mainline guys get. Not fair. A few well connected pilots get the keys to the golden seniority list while the rest of us play out their days as sharecroppers at the regionals.

The truly tragic part is that most do not realize the severity of their discounted career until they are reaching 40 and acknowledge to themselves that they will never make it out of their regional.

Skyhigh