Originally Posted by
kaputt
What was it that kept the regional airline industry hiring moving back in that 2003-2007 time frame when most of the major carriers still had thousands of pilots furloughed?
Genuinely asking, as I was in middle/high school at the time. However as an aspiring pilot I remember regionals were constantly hiring (some even at 250 hours!), but I also remember the major airlines were doing pretty poorly.
Not suggesting that will happen again this time around, just genuinely curious from those that were in the industry then what it was that kept regional hiring going when the rest of the industry was still not in great shape.
9-11 accelerated fleet retirement plans. All of the tri-jets got parked. It also accelerated the transition from turboprops to regional jets. Jets-for-jobs programs were started to entice pilots to give up scope. The bankruptcies were used to negate contract provisions and merger mania caused even more relaxation of scope in the amalgamated contracts.
Airline managers were more concerned with maintaining market share than going broke (like they are now) so regional jets replaced small narrowbodies on routes with lower load factors. As the decade developed the stretch CRJs and E-17x models arrived and further propelled growth.
All of this combined to see the regional airlines growing at the expense of their parent network carriers. Some established regionals didn't grow very much. Republic exploded, purchasing Mid-Atlantic from U.S. Airways and Shuttle America. Freedom, Go-jet and other alter-ego carriers were started to help keep wages down. Compass and a couple other new airlines came on the scene with rapid growth.
Lessons were learned and this downturn should see the opposite happen. Regionals will see more shrinkage and reorganization if not outright shutdown. Unless pilots panic again...we shall see.