Originally Posted by
rickair7777
This is why startups seem to be able to get goping and occasionally thrive despite numerous structural barriers to entry. A new pilot group works for a lot less, and that won't change until they get a union, operate for a couple decades, and do a couple contract cycles.
Yeah even Spirit, which has been around a couple decades, doesn’t have very many truly senior guys. Prior to COVID they had guys making CA at about 3 years. When you are growing 15% per year half your people are an FO with 4 years - or less. AA is going to be retiring about 7% of their pilots a year pretty soon - while Spirit will be retiring 1-2% of theirs. They simply don’t HAVE that many senior people. When your Median CA is in their seventh or eighth year and your Median FO is in their 3rd year you have a helluva advantage over a longer established major where the median CA is making top scale and their Median FO is over 12 years - even if the hourly rates per year longevity were the same - which they aren’t.