Originally Posted by
FerrisBluer
Somewhat Disagree, what your gonna see is more and more of what Mesa is currently getting. The older gentleman who doesn't need the job..however the one that is on a 2nd career has the hours already has the ex wife and doesn't give a rats *ss about any of the typical Regional 12 yr old BS. The one that says "hey that 175/190 type sure would do wonders in China" or the one that says hey I wanna fly a jet and see what it's like? Well that's what Mesa is gonna get and theres plenty of them out there. Short term "what's in it for me" pilots who know and choose to temporarily discard those pay rates.
Which In turn is exactly what J.O. Wants. "Short term pilots."
That plus the quick upgrade "crunching" numbers based on "all the stars aligning" fresh CFI Who says.."look at the time to upgrade, Tina?"
And wasn't that exactly what the regional airline was always supposed to be about, I mean from the pilot's perspective? Hours, upgrade, move on! You're right, this is a good thing from management's perspective, and as long as it really works that way, it's not a bad thing for the pilot who wants a quick stepping stone to something better.
What's $hitty about it is the fact that lots of us, like me, get stuck and realize I might actually be AT my career airline. Then the rates and benefits start to matter more. I guarantee you all those girls I saw flow from Mesa to Delta back in 2007/8 couldn't have cared less about pay rates, or any other Mesa thing. They were on the fast track!
The whole idea of a regional airline is a conflict of many interests, and an identity crisis rolled into one. If it were not, it wouldn't be so easy to get played all the time by every party out there.
Management plays us.
Unions play us
We, the pilots, play ourselves and each other!
It's the laws of physics, nature of the beast. Don't like it? Find another beast - i.e. work to construct a whole new paradigm. (good luck with that by the way ) Otherwise keep watching the show.