Originally Posted by
mooneymite
"Back in the day", when Delta started up Delta Express (anyone remember that?) and the pilots were on a lower pay scale, there were second officers who had NEVER flown either captain, or copilot on a Delta jet who up-graded directly to captain on the express operation.
Many wise people predicted dired consequences, but everyone did just fine. Anyone Delta hires has the experience and ability to be trained to fly captain day one.
Never underestimate pilots' survival instincts....
It was very wise what Dal did with express. That was the most standardized operation in the airline. In fact JG was a check airman at express. And, another guy in the news this week, was the fleet Capt, CF. You guys know me by now, and I call a spade a spade. I like both of those guys. They are genuine, good, sharp, nice guys, they just took a different route than the rest of us. They have a role to play.
Carry express forward. The airline is standardized, maybe excessively. Standardization is good. Try to fly the same flight over and over every flight and you get pretty darn good at doing your job.
All the new-hire captains in NYC were 88 FOs in NYC. I'm pretty sure they got this.