Originally Posted by
tripodd
I think what sonic is trying to say is that a lot of people don’t want to go or can’t afford to go through the hardship between 250 and 1500 because the QOL and pay is just so bad.
Ask any student/CFI in a flight school - no one will complain about regional pay AT THAT POINT. They are mostly worried about being able to pay back debt and being able to earn enough to support themselves till getting the 1500.
Sure, they’re fine with regional pay NOW. But we’re still dealing with the stigma about pilot pay from when people used to take pay cuts to go from a CFI to a regional FO, which was not that long ago. There’s always a lag time between when pay improves and when that fact pierces the general psyche of the population.
Regardless, the solution is not to enact changes that will cause ALL airline pilots’ pay to stagnate or go down, because then you’re back to people not wanting to become airline pilots at all, ala 2000s and early 2010s.
Being an airline pilot is not that sexy to young people anymore (if it ever was), so there HAS to be something about the career that outweighs the many, many cons of being in this profession. Pay and the promise of a better lifestyles are the things that will do it, not diluting the requirements.