Originally Posted by
ZeroTT
the issue isn’t “does a major pay more”; it’s does the regional offer enough. There’s a subset of pilots who are inclined to stay because of family, pension, location or sheer laziness. A doubling in salary not that compelling if the regional pays enough.
It isn’t even that. You see some career FOs at regionals. Or at least FOs that are quite content to wait until they are senior enough that when they upgrade - if they ever do upgrade - they will be senior captains flying the very same sorts of schedule you fly as a senior FO with the seniority to upgrade.
Don’t even think it’s fear of failing the upgrade, in most cases, just that after months and sometimes years of reserve, they never want to be on reserve or commute ever again. I think that more than anything else leads to career regional lifers, more even than failed training events, DUIs, or lack of ability to get a four year degree. And I think it’s these people that make majors leery of straight flow programs, increasingly requiring set amounts of TPIC or other hoops to jump through that will weed them out of the flow.