Originally Posted by Excargodog

I suppose all things are POSSIBLE but why would they want to? They certainly don't have 400 or so E-175 type rated and line qualified pilots just sitting around, not even Republic. When a group of 650 already qualified pilots exist, why would anyone wish to spend the additional money to recreate what already exists?

Even under the best of circumstances you aren't going to get 400 people recruited, their ATP done, and through sim training without an enormous expense. While I have no idea what an E-175 sim goes for an hour, or how much it costs for instructors, or how much you spend on recruiters per new hire, the new hire salary and hotel expenses while going through training alone must be north of $20K a head, and that doesn't even count the signing bonuses that are now being given. That's an asset that in training alone is - at an absolute minimum - worth $12 million or so, and very likely double that.

And this for a group who have already 100% COMPLETED training, so you aren't going to be paying for training attrition either. Nor are you going to want to be parking dozens of aircraft while you crank 400 people through training.


Now clearly, all things are possible, and I will admit I've seen companies do stupider things, but I think what BobbyLeeSwagger posted makes more sense.