Originally Posted by
rvr1800
I don't support alienating these guys. That's an immature strategy to try to squash this program. The pilot shortage can be solved simply by the majors negotiating reasonable contracts with their regionals and in turn those regionals paying pilots a livable wage. As far as jetblue's recruiting goes all we need to do is offer a contract that's better than the legacies and we'll have no issues.
Sure. Buuuuut....will mainline pilots be cool with reduced compensation in order for management to fix the glitch wrt their subcontractors? The answer is of course they won't. Management won't redistribute the company's profit willingly in order to do it, that's for sure.
Sounds like the new guy has all y'all check-mated on the regional FO apprenticeship angle though. The lives of your mainline customers gets gambled on most connecting flights by these regional players, and they do the exact same job as a mainline FO. Just because it's economic fact doesn't make it right. The indignation from the pay your dues seasoned regional applicants to mainline jobs is noted, but it's misplaced anger in respect to this thread. The regionals gamble a LOT when it comes to the safe outcome of their operation. They're one essential DC bus failure away from morting themselves in IMC with people on board, and we already saw what has happened when perfectly operational airplanes get crashed by incompetents who "play" airline pilot well. It is in the best interest of the mainline labor to deflect away from the notion that airplanes can be flown by inexperienced crews reliant on the MTBF of modern avionics and engine and flight control monitoring systems. The best way to do this imo? Absorb the B-scale into mainline lists and take over the flying. Otherwise management will see an opening and "regional FO" up the right seat mainline jobs. At that point the CA pay gets eroded too it's game over, because without the carrot of mainline CA pay, the entire scheme collapses at all levels. People endure the regional pay for the promise of mainline CA pay. Absent that, the entire thing is a non-starter and everybody knows it.
Originally Posted by
comrcap
Ab initio is pay for training. Period. Don't do it.
The military is ab initio. You don't pay for that training, other than a training commitment of time and the potential of getting killed because you are being shot at, or in most people's cases, because the airplanes are old and mx sucks on them. Still, mil folks go to the front of the line on many instances of part 121 hiring too. So, ab initio is not a synonym for PFT by default.