Originally Posted by
AxialFlow
An empty platitude. There are guys out there who have been in this career 15 years that have never made out of the right seat, or a regional for that matter, just by the cyclical nature of this industry and the seniority system. Makes it tough to "get out" when you can't get any left-seat time. Mainline is creating their own problem of sorts though, with consolidation at the regional level: it reminds EVERYONE that regionals aren't companies one can spend their career at. Mainline can't hire too many all at once now, or they might just end up crippling the feed they rely so heavily on.
Even in this economy, you don't necessarily need TPIC time or internal connections to get hired at a LCC/major. It's about having the motivation and the aptitude to leave. I can't count how many pilots I flew with that didn't bother updating their logbooks, some of them for over 6 months! I'm not just talking about Captains, but FOs too. How can you have an updated resume and apply online if you don't even know your flight times? I will say the CAs and FOs I knew at regionals that have moved on to Spirit, VA, JetBlue, US Air, Fedex, were all driven to leave and constantly kept their stuff up to date and applied regularly.