PFT schemes come and go with airline hiring cycles. News cycles will cover the "pilot shortage" more and more during the next 15 years until industry pay gets high enough to attract more people into it.

When you really look at it 1500hr FO starting out at a regional isn't all that different than a 1500hr FO starting out at JB. Why is it acceptable for regionals but not JetBlue (aside from the pay)? For regionals it was a step up in safety etc. from 250hr commercial hiring mins.

JetBlue management is keenly worried about the pilot shortage long term. There's no way they can drop pilot pay (even though cutting pilot costs sounds good to their investors) because their pilots will jump ship to the legacies and they'll fail.

The 125k price (plus the price of a 4 year degree) is going to be prohibitively expensive for most people anyways unless JetBlue finances it themselves. If the union wants to combat this PFT program the CBA should attack any sort of seat locks and training contracts for any new hire accessions and upgrades to limit the company's leverage over a PFT accession beyond their probation period on property, and the CBA should ensure the same pays ale for all pilots regardless of accession sources and the Pilot group should welcome them with open arms so they're less likely to side with management.