Originally Posted by Excargodog

That’s what Atlas is doing now. With older 747s. While I’m not rated in the 747 I’d be willing to bet that it is a significantly more challenging aircraft to fly than a modern Airbus. And I’ll grant you, they are mostly doing that because they want cheap butts in the seat, but it’s also a reflection of the fact that the barrel is getting down there. The bottom feeders are already scraping the bottom. Atlas wouldn’t be doing that if they could get more experienced people for $40k to start. Frontier is offering new FOs $58 an hour with a 75 hour guarantee. That’s what - maybe $60 k? And the Atlas FOs will be making $100 an hour after their first year vs $108 an hour at Frontier.

So the idea that anyone is going to keep people swimming in a pool for any length of time - at least if the applicants actually have a decent experience level - without somebody poaching from that pool is looking increasingly suspect.

Airline HR departments may have a real culture change coming their way. I hope it doesn’t catch them by surprise.