So, what say you about ab initio in lieu of regional work? My understanding of the dynamic is that in America flight training is cheap and accessible, thus no barrier to supply that forces companies into ab initio. And if not ab initio, how then should the industry be structured so that the apprenticeship portion of a professional airline pilot's career isn't a financially ruinous endeavor when juxtaposed to the prevailing wage at the mainline level?

I know some would say, "well if the regional stint had only been 4 years then there's no problem to fix" but as we can see, that "career expectation" upon which the regional FO salary is supported/accepted by the applicants in the first place, is no longer true. Are regional FOs today truly supportive of food industry wages for airliner flying, if not for the very privately or publicly held belief that such a wage level is to be endured for only 4 years? Not baiting, honest question.

How should the apprenticeship level of the profession look like in order to be sustainable? I'm assuming the current system is not sustainable, which apparently is still a source of disagreement by folks on here.