Originally Posted by
atpcliff
Here's the problem:
Let's say AA decides to keep all their regional pilots at their regional, to fly feed for them. Basically, they will all leave for DAL/UAL/SWA/FedEx, etc. So, they lose the pilot both from the regional, and from the AA family, so the AA customers they were flying will now fly for a competing airline.
It is better to move your own regional pilots up, than lose them to a competitor....
If you owned your regional feed, and if you were in charge of hiring, which most majors are not. Lose them to a competitor? How much do you value a reliable source of pilots?
Right now, market forces set the hiring requirements and threshold of qualifications. If at some point the pool of applicants is reduced, market forces will react to protect that source. We might well be there.
Unless you control the end to end process, keeping them "in the family" really doesn't apply, and has a cost to it, that for now, majors don't seem willing to pay--but it's a nice idea.