Originally Posted by Thedude86

The difference is the higher pay at Republic doesn’t come from American. Republic has to eat those costs of raising pay. And Spirit has no one to farm their airbus flying out to. When you operate an airplane that can’t be farmed out you’ll finally have some leverage.

Piedmont is one of the smallest operators of about 9 regional carriers that fly for American. I would argue that even a larger carrier like Envoy or PSA doesn’t have any leverage. When you have 9 “contractors” to choose from, what do you think happens when one of them gets too expensive or tries to twist the master’s arm? I will bet my first born son that American will most certainly make an example out of Piedmont for Envoy and everyone else if they don’t get their way. It is the sole reason why regionals exist in the first place.... to keep costs low. And if that happens it won’t be the first time or the last time an airline has shown their wrath.

Even including piedmont the overall regional pilot staffing for all the American regional carriers is better now than it was in 2013. Literally HALF of PSA’s pilots are on reserve and there are other carriers not far behind.

The day any regional has any kind of leverage is the day that our flying finally starts transitioning to mainline. Today is not that day. Otherwise, what’s the point in having 9 different contractors?

American has at a minimum 3 other backup plans before they give you more than what’s already been offered. What kind of leverage will you have after they announce you’re being downsized or merged with someone else? Or they fill new hire classes anyway by just upping the bonuses by another 10k-20k?

You guys are thinking short term. American is thinking long term, what’s cheapest overall, and is about 4 steps ahead of you.