chrisreedrules

Yea honestly that’s how I see this playing out. They’re up to their eyeballs in the flow programs. To stop the flow would likely require them to cough up a ton of money to stop the bleeding of regional pilots going literally anywhere else.

Because let’s be honest... The pay is less than the contract regionals. The pilot contracts are worse than the contract regionals. And without flow most likely wouldn’t show up at all unless it was for a very specific base. They would have to improve all those things to make the WOs competitive and that would cost them millions.

And I’ve heard that AA is making changes to the hiring process at all 3 WOs in 2020. They want a larger hand in the process and a say in who is hired. And I don’t blame them.

There are systemic issues with the regional industry right now. There has been a steady decline in the average aptitude of new FOs entering the industry. In my opinion this is a natural byproduct of the relatively massive amount of movement we’re starting to see. The focus is no longer on the quality of time but the quantity of time and it is painfully obvious. Get my 500 hours and interview at a regional. “Get my 1,000 hours RATP and go to class at a regional. Upgrade once I’ve got 1,000 hours as an FO at my regional (2,000 total time). Become qualified to be a Check Airman once I’ve got 500 hours in the left seat (2,500 total time).” There is a lot of inbred and systemic issues starting to come up. A vast amount of inexperience in both seats. We all know what’s going to fix it... But we don’t like the means to that end. It’s the same thing that has always triggered change in this industry.