Originally Posted by
gloopy
The supply is going to increase, one way or another. Airline managements are throwing their clout around and that will only intensify. If it gets bad enough, they will have an easy time persuading Congress/FAA to lower the mins, create an MPL and worst of all, cabotage and/or start dumping money off Uncle Sugar's printing press to cover it.
I agree, but as a pilot that's not my concern nor my problem. It's management's problem. It's in my best interest as a pilot that there is a labor shortage. It's likely that eventually they will find a way to increase labor supply but like I said, unless I am investing in flight schools (and I'm not saying I haven't thought seriously about doing just that) it's not the concern of your day to day line pilot or student with line pilot aspirations.
There's going to be money thrown at flight schools either way. I'd rather that money be constrained by the free market (as close to such a thing as we have anyway) than dumped into mega euro style puppy mills full of endentured servants with massive training bonds. The flight training/recruiting infrastructure will see increases, no matter what
Again, so what, why would you care? Unless you are hoping this will happen or are being paid to endorse such ideas among run of the mill airline pilots.
Sitting this one out and hoping we win big with bidding power as an insufficient and ever shrinking supply of pilots commands neverending, exponential financial gains may sound good to you but it will quickly backfire if it ever gets to that point.
Bidding power? What bidding power? What does that even mean? As long as pilots are bound by seniority lists we have very little power to bid on our salary, job or pay.
I want the 1500 hour rule to stay, and I don't want an MPL or anything like it. I'd prefer we keep an experienced based system rather than some brainiac chosen one system that only focuses on right of passage bookwork trivia and synthetic training flying all glass wonder boxes through pink squares in the sky.
I like flying through pink boxes personally...it's kind of cool! The fact is that flying an airliner is getting pretty easy these days and the cockpits are becoming idiot proof. These guys don't need round dial skills and probably never will. But as I said, as a pilot today, you shouldn't care about that and should only concerned about how well you can market your skills today. This is what most pilots should worry about.
The real problem is that airlines are trying to lock out the higher paying jobs by using the seniority system to create barriers for entry. You think the seniority system protects your job but unless you are the number one captain at a major airline or you can barely pass a checkride and hang on to your number, the seniority system is keeping you down.
We need more at the foundation level. Despite your rediculous implied hyperbole, that doesn't mean flooding the market with billions of wet ink ATP's. No one is suggesting that.
You suggested that...earlier.
A realistic system that turns out a reasonable number of 1500+ hour ATP's is the only thing that's going to keep MPL and the EK's of the world from poaching our industry merchant marine style.
Again, as pilots it's not our problem to help management increase labor supply or even be concerned with it.
We need a supply solution before it gets to truly crisis proportions or rest assured they will find solutions that won't be good for us.
Like what!? I know what you said but short of increasing the labor supply as you suggested, what can they do? The fact is what you think will help pilots the most (increasing the labor supply) will actually serve to hurt pilots the most.
The problem is pilots have been so severely indoctrinated and brainwashed to believe the seniority system helps them they can't see that a true labor shortage would actually serve to help pilots because the very thing that needs to happen to fix the labor shortage (taking down the seniority system) and driving up the price of pilots (read: higher starting pay) is exactly what scares pilots the most....it's bizarre.
They are already working on them and have many millions to spend getting their way on the Hill.
Yep...and the unions are playing and paying right along side them.