Originally Posted by
Flightcap
The fundamental problem with any tinkering to a seniority system is that you always have the guys at the very top who would be negatively impacted by any sort of benefits / compensation flattening. They have a strong incentive to stonewall any effort to take away the benefits they enjoy, especially when they had to endure being at the bottom of the seniority list to get there.
That's true, but only at mainline. Any flattening at the regional level would tend to flatten out toward the high end leaving captain pay pretty much where it is...or even push it up a bit.
Pushing ALPA out of the regionals and getting rid of seniority would be a management nightmare which is why it would be a tough sell. Management (both mainline and regional) depends on ALPA and their BS to sell the business model to pilots and keep them brainwashed.
If becoming a captain at a regional was a good long term job the mainlines would be forced to lower their hiring standards to try to recruit regional first officers or even compete directly with regionals for the best entry level pilots.
The regionals would save a ton of money in training and recruiting costs.
Bottom line is the regionals can do this and still remain profitable but they will only do it if they are forced to do it. The fact that it's more and more difficult to recruit exclusively at the bottom end may force their hand...or they may just throw in the towel.