The only realistic way I can envision raising regional pay is to top off Captain pay lower. Squeeze the payscales towards the middle. People might say guys like Jonathan Ornstein are the devil, but really, is what he said here
that unreasonable?
We don’t need to have people making $96,000 (reference to average Captain pay at Mesa) if they don’t want to. If they’d rather start wages lower, that’s up to them. I’ll divide it up any way they want.
A top heavy seniority list of old Captains at a regional seems like a legitimate problem for both airline management and all the guys trying to flow through to a major ASAP. Lower Captain pay at a regional would encourage these guys to move on, improve flow, and enable significantly higher starting wages for the many multitudes of people coming and going at the starting FO pay.
I understand a few of these guys have special circumstances where it doesn't make sense to move on to a major, but can anyone explain why some regionals (Mesa, etc) have so many senior Captains who refuse to leave? And I don't mean to bash any senior regional Captains, just a legitimate and sincere question.