Originally Posted by
CBreezy
Then what do you suggest prospective pilots do to build time to get enough magic hours to get hired by a non-hiring major? We can't make people retire at 60. We can't suggest you sell your 3rd house and take a pay cut to avoid scope losses.
Originally Posted by
NineGturn
It has nothing to do with hours needed. The majors have the exact same regulations as the regionals and the exact same hiring requirements to do the exact same job. If you are willing to work for $20k per year then that's what they'll pay.
Regional pilots are nothing more than mainline pilots working on a B scale.
Airline hiring minimums are solely a function of supply and the available pool of pilots. What do you think the hiring minimums would be at the majors if regional airlines didn't exist?
Spot on! There is no difference between an E170 and an E190, both are the same type. The regionals exist because the market was saturated with pilots hungry for a flying job. Management dangled the "Big Iron" in front of the mainline pilots for a few "regional jets" to be outsourced. We all know where that led us.
Here we are today......an industry starving for pilots at the regional level because the pipeline is full, and flowing at a high rate, in to the mainline. Over the next few years I suspect we'll see mainline pilots flying more of these routes while regionals shrink to the supply of pilot applicants. You may even see mainline taking pilots out of flight training. It's not like that hasn't ever happened, in fact, UA interns got hired straight out of college.