Originally Posted by Punkpilot48
So is it safe to say that maybe the legacy airlines should just find a way to buy the regionals? Sure in the past the commuter airlines went into airports with airplanes that the majors prolly did not want to deal with right? Can the same be said with the 50~70~90 seat jets of today? Wouldnt it bring in money for the legacies since with the rj's they could compete with the low cost carriers? And it seem to me that it would make the pay scale for the RJ pilots a little better right?
In the 90's the majors all rushed out and bought up their independent commuter partners and operated them as wholly owned subsidiaries. Then in 2001 COMAIR did a nasty strike and got the BEST EVER regional pilot contract, spanking their new owner Delta in the process. Well THAT got everybodies attention...Post 9/11 the trend has been to unload wholly owned regionals and farm the business out to MULTIPLE sub-contractors so you're not vulnerable to a strike by one and you can play them off against each other.
Any consolidation of regional flying under mainline is not in the companies best interests and will HAVE to come from the unions via scope clauses. It is safe to say that many majors would like to sub out ALL their pilot jobs. Preferably to companies based in sub-saharan Africa.