Originally Posted by
Approach1260
It's very true that things are better now than they were before, but the airlines didn't raise pay and quality of life out of the goodness of their hearts, or because they thought the pilots earned it.
They raised pay because after years of stagnant wages and an ever increasing barrier to entry (1,500 hour rule was the turning point), new pilots made the judgement call that they couldn't afford to go to the airlines and still pay off their training.
It was these new young pilots saying no to the way things have always been that forced Airline Managers to finally start having to compete with each other to keep New Hires coming in the door.
For example PSA was hiring between 3 and 5 a month until they finally raised pay. Now we've been stagnant for a while and the numbers are dropping off again because new pilots are going to more lucrative regionals, which in turn puts pressure on management to make changes to stay competitive with their hiring.
The good old days were rough, but the new guys and gals coming in who want to be treated better are part of the solution not the problem.
No. Regionals are not paying more to incentivize noble millenials with high standards to become airline pilots. People become airline pilots (ie invest the training time and cost) mainly to pursue major airline wages (especially right now).
Regionals are paying more because they have to outbid EACH OTHER for noobs. A combination of sustained growth and retirements caused demand to outstrip the available supply. Seller's market.
Regionals exist to force pilots to UNDERBID each other at the entry-level which is normally a buyer's market. Regionals are just getting a taste of their own medicine (at least for a while).