What Sen. Enzi is missing, as well as the FAA, is that Great Lakes has already effectively repealed the 1500 hour rule.. by operating under the part 135 certificate, Lakes should be able to hire all the pilots they could want. Lakes should not see a degration of service because of the 1500 hour rule because the 1500 hour rule no longer applies to them or their Riverton service. So maybe, just maybe, Enzi should stick to real republican values and stand by the economic laws of capitalism.
I'm all for if they want to redefine the number of enplanements to keep funding or service at airports that need them, but to pressure the FAA to reevaluate its 1500 hour rule, for lakes, which is part 135, is udder insanity. Lakes is actually living proof that even if we eliminated the 1500 hour rule, we'd hire a small handful of 500-1499hr guys and then in a year we'd be right back where we are today.
Lakes isn't suffering some mythical pilot shortage because the FAA is cutting off their source of labor, lakes is suffering because there are so few young people who desire the job of being an airline pilot anymore. Lakes is an example of a repealed 1500 hour rule that still won't save the industry. Until the job becomes desireable again, Lakes and other regionals will continue to suffer staffing issues. This is basic supply-demand, the part 135 exemption that lakes got, and its continued abysmal service record, only shows that this republican should stand by supply-demand economics. This, believe it or not, isn't the governments fault.