Originally Posted by Groundpointfife

For those on the fence about whether the 1500 hour rule going away would be a good thing, think about this...

If you are currently flying for a regional, places like United have started to do CPP, including ATCA in Arizona. Right now CPP pilots have to meet ATP requirements by flight instructing, should congress go back on the 1500 hour requirement, students in the CPP program may be eligible for hire at UA with Commercial pilot certificates. Assume you are not flying for a regional with CPP, you could have thousands of hours, possibly 121 TPIC and get hired after a freshly minted commercial pilot, good for the guy who got hired with the commercial, but think about how all the current 121 pilots will feel. I imagine the same would apply to AA and DL, but UA is a known quantity where they are actively taking 1500 hour pilots (with zero turbine time) and putting them into mainline jets ahead of current, active regional pilots.

Airlines can choose their own hiring practices, what makes anyone think that they would like to hurt their regional lift, when they can easily keep people flying jets for less by taking fresh commercial pilot certificates. Of course they will continue to hire experienced pilots, but it is like the dilemma of getting hired to AA outside the flow, the smaller the percentage of off the street hires, the lower your chances of getting selected are.

On the regional side of the situation, it will allow a pilot to get from zero to fresh commercial pilot certificate within 6 months...then hired at a regional. What has caused wages to rise in the regional industry is that there have not been enough people willing to fly for $16-22/hr. I say willing because there have been pilots due to 9/11 and the lost decade that hung their hat up and chose another career.