Originally Posted by
atpcliff
True. But it's better for the mainline to have a mainline pilot fly a -175 on a specific route, than to have no one available to crew any aircraft for that same route.
The Pilot Shortage has just begun...with no one for the regional to recruit from, the only choice for the mainline is to fly using a mainline pilot, or to recruit someone into the training pipeline who will end up flying for mainline down the road.
A better idea might be for mainline management (at keast at AAG) to bring in one or more of their wholly-owned regionals to fly these aircraft at modified group I rates as F/O's which would effectively double their regional F/O ranks. That way, present WO regional pilots could fly them (and likely for awhile). If present AA pilots were assigned to fly them too (as Captains), an agreement could be reached to do it for Group I rates for mainline pilots. They're AAG's planes and if the regional pilots were then stapled to the mainline list (immediate flow for all), it might be a workable solution.