Originally Posted by
Airway
He isn't entirely wrong. The 1500hr rule was indeed arbitrary and a knee jerk reaction by Congress with regard to an accident that had less to do with experience and more to do with general incompetence and lax training standards.
Keeping the experience standards high is great until it reaches the point where they have to either lower the threshold or raise the retirement age to keep up with demand.
There is no requirement for us to "keep up with demand." If airline management teams want to increase their route structure, route foot-pritnt, or frequency to destinations that is a marketing and business decision. Airline pilots and pilots unions MUST remain focused on safety, quality, and standards. We MUST NOT fall prey to listening to the talking heads in management.
The supply chain (time line) of producing pilots is well published. Airline managements that wish to expand beyond the limitations of the supply chain would be acting in a reckless and capricious manner if they chose to do so.
DEMAND is not our problem. Management teams and former CEO's that have lots of stock options will continue to remind us of "demand" and the "needs of the traveling public to travel more", and their fundamental right to "affordable air travel," and their "fundamental rights to more seats and less crowded airplanes."
Anytime you hear a CEO, or former CEO, or airline executive or airline lobbyist talking about the limited supply of pilots and the increased demand for air travel ask yourself this question? Is not the aviation profession cyclical? Is it always an upward trend in hiring, or are there periods of time whereby the business models demand for pulling out of destinations, reducing block hours? have their been period of time when airlines hired great numbers of pilots only to furlough?
This profession is and has been unstable. Pan Am, Eastern, TWA all fantastic places to work, all crown jewels of the airline business in this country are gone. Regulation, de-regulation, and regulation have run their course, as well as the long lasting and ever present reminders of what Carl Ichan and Frank Lorenzo did to our profession. We need to be mindful and watchful that those types don't come back.
If our beloved "Gordo" is speaking of "supply and demand" he is doing so to represent stock-holders and his primary goal is to lower the price of pilot labor. YOU MUST UNDERSTAND Gordo is a lobbyist in this regard and who he represents? Any cost savings from management to lower the price of a pilot WILL NOT be passed on to either the labor force or the traveling public. They will be passed on to management in the way of bonuses, deferred compensation, and stock options.
The two primary BIG costs for airlines are pilot labor and fuel. Both will likely go up. Management needs to deal with that. "Joe Six Pack" may want to go from Chicago to Orlando and back for 99 bucks, but hey, "Joe Six Pack" may need to go out and work some over time and be ready to pony up 189. Our job is NOT to subsidize the industry, or the profession, and we do that by NOT buying into supply and demand talk. Where was Gordo and his buddies while we were eating Ramen noodles and sleeping on a cold hangar floor in the tool room in the 90's? Screw him. He got his, and now I want mine. I can't believe we were so stupid and gullible to buy this guy a Harley Davidson motorcycle.