Originally Posted by NineGturn

I would just add that last point in that equipment and base selection should be on an availability basis...no more forced displacements by senior guys and no more entitlement bidding so guys spend more time in training collecting type ratings than they do on the line. Airlines can save tremendous amounts of money by offering those new positions to either qualified new hires or junior people elsewhere within the system who may already be qualified.

Saving money on training costs will allow more money to be allocated to compensation since in the end...it's all lumped together as labor costs for pilots as far as management is concerned.





I really like your ideas and I've been saying this for years.

I once worked for a small commuter airline (a long time ago in an airport far far away) that operated turboprops and was non union. We had a unique pay structure that was very much in line with what you are saying here. I know because I wrote the proposal and handed it to the owner directly. I argued that we could reduce training costs and turnover this way. The owner signed off on it and our turnover dropped dramatically at a time when scheduled carriers were hiring aggressively. No one took a pay cut because they were grandfathered in.

I understood that most of the pilots were just building time. One of the policies was to upgrade first officers to captain when they were ready rather than when we needed them and to do it based on their scheduled annual training to reduce costs. Their pay would still remain lower than a captain until the job became available (when they flew with other first officers) but in the meantime they could sign for the aircraft and build PIC time while earning a bit more money and continuing to fly with co captains. This prevented them from jumping to other commuters where they would start at the bottom as new hire FOs.

This policy also allowed us to hire captains from competing commuters by offering them more money for the same equipment. Back then you could factor in a pilot's currency in one airline to reduce training costs at the new airline. The airlines pushed to eliminate this because they were losing pilots to smaller operators.

The fact is there is a better way to do this but ALPA and management don't want it and they still push the old myths and propaganda to try to keep pilots in line. That's why you see the disruptive posts in these forums..they are in here too.