Originally Posted by
highflyer0685
If they get rid of the 1500 hour rule you can say goodbye to signing bonuses, higher hourly wages, etc at the regional level. Also any hopes of a major pilot shortage that would affect the major/legacy carriers can be kissed goodbye. Are there guys out there who could come in with 250 hours and never bust a checkride and be a great pilot?? Sure there are....but anyone currently at a regional or anyone who has their 1500 hours certainly doesn't want it. Keep us the pilots a commodity and force the regionals to pay us more and compete for our services until we move onto the majors.
Exactly! The whole point of mandating ATP minimums so that one may become an airline pilot is to kill the regionals, or at the very least to elevate starting pay to something more livable. When pay is $17k for someone starting, they are forced to make sacrifices which makes them overwork, or live in conditions such as sleeping in crash pads after a long commute in order to arrive at work on time. Fatigue is a huge issue and is a major contributor to roughly 20% of aviation accidents according to the NTSB! It's no joke. It is good for safety that ATP minimums are required to be hired by an airline because it puts enormous pressure on the regionals which seek to take advantage of the system and pay pilots $10k if they could escape with doing so! The whole point is to avoid altogether another Colgan Air flight 3407!!!