Thoughts:

1) Great Lakes is shriking. Not closing up shop, it's the cockroach of the industry, Voss will find a way to screw pilots enough to make money.

2) Current contract ALMOST guarantees there will be no hiring, see remaining thoughts for more details. This works because of #1, they need less pilots for the limited flying they will be doing in forseeable future.

3) There will be no new contract. Just an opinion? Yes. But hey, what are annonymous internet forums for.....well rumors too I guess. Pilots with 1500 Hours will not have a hard time making choice between Lakes and (insert 'my regional is better than your regional' here) when they look at pay and QOL seeing that both airlines have same minimums.

4) There WILL be pilots furloughed because of the ATP requirement, it will be a very small number, but I dont judge the actions of a company as good or bad based on the number of pilots they want to appease. It's wrong if even one guy loses his job because the shriking lines of the company prevent low-time FOs from obtaining their ATP in time.

5) The elphant in the room is the TRAINING CONTRACT. For those guys facing a difficult decision in the next few months this is what it's all about. Will Lakes force these pilots to pay $7500 (not prorated) and not work out a deal with them to get the required hours in time? Will they, on purpose, keep guys on RSV with as little as 6 hours a month to make a buck? (Ok the last part is a stretch but figured it fit on an internet forum)

6) Lastly, will upgrade matter? The MILLION dollar question for all regional pilots looking where their carreer is going. Will upgrade time on a Beech and the TPIC in a nonjet, non-FMS aircraft actually get you hired at a major over RJ jockies? Or with this impending pilot shortage (hahaahaha sorry I actually laughed IRL when I wrote that) will TPIC not mean much compaired to JET PIC? Today, March 16th 2013, TPIC still matters, but will it in two years looking to move on to majors?


7) Sorry for spelling, wrote on phone.