Originally Posted by
Wingtips
AWAC is not owned by USAIR! This will take years to pan out, by then, regional feed will go to who ever can staff it, your about see a massive shortage of new hires for the RJs. They will have to raise first year FO pay, and thats not an option without a contract, and everyone will want some pie. Its about to become a VERY rocky road come next AUG, and even more so the following spring with FT.DT.
My bet says a lot of regionals will dissolve thru merger or elimination and the 50-seat and smaller RJ's and turboprops will be replaced with larger RJ's. Since the majors won't have heavy retirements for years and they will be contracting anyways, there will be few places for regional pilots to go.
I think they'll have no problem filling the RJ seats for the next 3-5 years as the regional industry shakes out. As some carriers downsize or disappear others will expand, thus many junior will be starting over elsewhere. Pinnacle is already following Comair and which carriers are the players and which aren't has still to play out.
$5/hour more for new-hires won't be creating a stampede for the right seat of an RJ and $40-50/K year regional new-hires won't happen as that would be more then most majors who can spread their cost over more revenue producing seats of larger aircraft.