Originally Posted by
Excargodog
Describe for me a model where management benefits more than delaying pilot career progression as much as possible. Where they pay out less to fill seats than if they keep regional pilots in the cheap seats as long as possible before resetting their seniority and starting them all over again at the bottom.
Yes, they do have to deal with market forces, but the longer they can delay upgrading young people and the more retired military they can jam in to the system ahead of the 26 year old with 1000 CFI hours and 2000 121 hours, the more money they DON'T have to spend on pilot salary at the very highest pay rates.
All the economic incentives for management are to do no more for their regional guys career progression than they absolutely must.
They could absolutely shut down the pathway. There’s no doubt about it but I think to shut it down or to even slow it down to a trickle won’t bode well for their recruiting strategy.
I agree that filling seats at Alaska isn’t the problem here(I think you implied that). We know that QX wants more CA’s and I’ve heard they also want more intructors/check airman etc. A lack of qualified pilots in the left seat is literally keeping them from flying as much as they would like to. Draining their ranks of qualified CA’s hurts the operation to some extent, at least the way things are now.
My guess here is they’d ideally like to see pilots come to QX, get their time and upgrade, spend a couple of years as CA’s and then move on(pilots are going to be moving on whether they go to AS or another major anyway). If they’re able to retain just enough pilots willing to stay on as CA’s for a stint and to contribute as instructors etc they’ll have what they need to keep the operation running well.
Alaska needs to hire pilots that will stay long enough to upgrade and fly as CA’s also but perhaps not long enough to hit the top of the pay scale. There’s probably a sweet spot agewise in regards to this. I don’t get the impression though that the majors seek to hire only middle aged pilots. They hire a wide range of ages. I don’t think this is as big a concern at the majors. Correct me if I’m wildly innacurate here.
If I were in management I would be seeking to attract young pilots to QX that have a desire to remain on the west coast and see Alaska as a top choice. I would want to be able to control the movement of QX pilots to AS so that there is enough movement to maintain confidence in the pathway yet not at the same time devastate QX by depleting their stock of experienced and productive pilots.
If QX was to shut down the pathway or even slow it down too much, they will lose credibility amongst the young new pilots that they, let’s face it, desperately need to fill the ranks. All of the regionals are fighting to attract young pilots. Shutting down the pathway would be a bad move.