Originally Posted by
billyho
Exactly. Why merge a senior pilot group with a soon to be junior one? Remember Parker isn't using the flow to help the pilots. He wins on both fronts. First his labor cost a PDT/PSA/ENY drops a ton. Replacing a bunch of senior 100k Captains with 50K Captains is a win. Shaving the top of 3 regionals he's now got a bunch of former WO'ed Pilots in there early 40's to late 50's. at mainline at year one pay. And now Guess what? They won't be at the 12 year top scale at mainline long before they have to retire. Another win.
He'd rather hire all the AWAC folks as Street Captains. 1st year Captain pay and the fact they won't be able to flow for over 5-8 years. Win Win for Parker.
Should be an interesting year for a few regionals. Thank goodness all the majors will be hiring like crazy and they'll need all the pilots they can get.
I think that is skewed thinking. I know it might "sound wrong" to you, but PSA can't recruit enough pilots NOW, much less think they would gather even 30% of a 700+ pilot group if they were all released into the wild... What would draw them to PSA? Flow? It sure isn't pay, and all of the WO carriers have flow (better than PSA's). With Endeavor offering large bonuses and almost every other non-WO offering better pay what makes you think any would choose PSA? Like I said, to you it might make sense, but on the scale of money AA operates on, regional pilot pay is a drop in the bucket. They could guarantee 80+ percent of those pilots stay if they merge. THAT actually helps to solve their problem.
Like I said, maybe not likely... But a hell of a lot more help to AA if they want a boost to PSA manning than wishing and hoping a small percentage of AWAC pilots choose PSA over any other regional. Which is unlikely...