Originally Posted by flyingkangaroo

I feel like the hiring and upgrade problems go deeper then what you think. I know it's probably ridiculous but I honestly feel some of the ASA schedules are designed to promote attrition.

The epidemic at ASA is very troubling. I don't think there is any other regional with the ammount of pilot longevity that we have. There is a outright surprising ammount of captains on the ASA side that have zero intention of leaving. I call it ultra-lifer-ism... There are so many guys in their late 30 or early 40's that in two or three more years will top the pay scales. They don't plan on leaving and simply will not entertain the idea.

Conversely, The FO side at ASA has seen 4 times as much attrition as the captains side has seen. The very junior end of the captains side will move on but it is likely that in the next few years FO attrition will outpace captains in a serious manner (thanks for the ATP asa). Eventually in the next couple of years asa/xjt will have a very very very hard time finding pilots. As a way to attract people to an airline with 7-8 year upgrades they are offering a two year agreement with an interview at Delta. I think they eventually expect no serious upgrades, they will shrink in to what is left of the regional flying and just be a mostly FO feeder airline to mainlines.