Originally Posted by
24/48
First off, the bold above is a bit of a reach on your part. By no means is UAX the profit generating arm of the airline. That is clearly being shown by the overall reduction of UAX feed and more block hours returning to the mainline. Sure you guys provide an element to the profits of UAL, but don't kid yourself that without you guys we wouldn't be making money. Simply put, regionals exist because years ago the same pilots pushing for the increase in retirement age decided it was okay to outsource regional jets with very loose language.
I would disagree that his statement is a reach. It may not be the primary profit arm but the fact is Mesa's new airplanes are owned by United and the jobs are outsourced to increase profitability. The only reason the regional airline model exists in the US is due to the unions. An Embraer is not a regional jet but it is being operated by regional airlines at the same pay scales that were paid out to 19 seat turboprop pilots twenty years ago.
Originally Posted by flapshalfspeed
I want to believe that I have a real shot at United, in the USA, and that I won't get stuck in the regionals this time around b/c of some sham bankruptcy, or moves by the grandpas to jack it on up to age 67 or 70, or some sort of scope relaxation allowing for 100 seaters at regionals. Or MPL/single-pilot cargo ops. I really, really want him to be right. But my experience has kind of beaten all of that hope outta me.
This is a very good point. When I started out as a regional airline pilot there were no jets, 70% of the fleet was 19 seaters, 15% of the pilots in the US worked at "regionals" and scope clauses were in the 30 to 50 seat range. The majors were experimenting with "B scale" and retirement age was 60. The trend has been pretty steady to what it is today and there is no sign it's stopped.
However, as a single white male still riding right seat in an RJ after a decade in this game (due to no "fault" of my own)
Ouch! I personally think opening up the skies should be a two way thing....I would love to see more American pilots getting high paying jobs with established overseas carriers. The problem is that once we do that you'll see the regionals in the US trying to fill seats with foreign labor. The problem here is that worldwide there is a shortage of pilots and US carriers would find it very difficult to recruit foreigners at current wages. The exception would be Europe where it's even worse than in the US.
On the other hand it will good for US based flight schools which are already making tons of money training foreign airline pilots but that doesn't do pilots any good unless you want to teach Chinese kids for your career.
My point is I don't see any improvement likely and it's probably going to get worse for pilots before it gets any better but by that time we'll be down to single pilot crews with ground based active dispatchers.