Cliff, I almost always agree with everything you post but I am not sure you are using the words "pilot shortage" correctly. There currently is demand for cheap pilots not seen in years. If I am willing to make $20,000 a year, I am in demand. When the guys that read this thread are waiting years at the chance to get an interview at Atlas, that is not a shortage.

My little sister is a doctor. Most doctors do not make good business decisions. After residency, all of her colleagues took their first offers at their number one choice hospitals. I instructed her to negotiate. Multiple hospitals would take her out to fancy dinners and each would offer her employement. Now she is not some tough negotiator, never even negotiating the purchase of her own car, but she managed to negotiate an extra $100,000 in income over a four year deal. She negotiated away all performance based benchmarks for pay and negotiated for all her student loans to be repayed by the hospital ($200,000 worth in loans). She still was able to get this compensation package at her number one choice hospital.

If I applied to Delta, United, FedEx, UPS, Southwest, etc.; I am certain that these companies would not be waiting in line to buy me dinner in hopes that I would work for them. I am also certain that if I told an interviewer that I would work at their airline if they paid me an additional $25,000 a year for the next four years that interviewer would show me the door.

I would not have a problem if you said there was a shortage of doctors...but pilots, no way!