Originally Posted by Billy32

More than anything they are going to miss out on some quality pilots who will move to Delta, CAL, UAL, NWA, Airtran, etc., instead of waiting until they have 5000 hours. If you are in the left seat of an RJ, it doesn't matter if you have 3500 hours or 10,000 hours. You can either learn a new aircraft or not. Once you are an RJ Captain for a year or two, more time is not going to make you more apt to pass initial training in an Airbus.