Originally Posted by
Round Luggage
While I tend to agree it won’t happen, I’m not certain. Why are you certain?
1. There are reasons some regional lifers are regional lifers.
2. They would rather hire ex-military, especially retired ex military, who due to their age will have a lower average wage over the course of their remaining career, already have a pension with offset for inflation, TRICARE for medical coverage, little experience with union negotiating, and have a 20 year history of conformity to the norms of an organization.
3. Their existing pilots would demand expensive concessions on the JCBA to allow it, and certainly flow-down rights in the event of a furlough.
4. It would require a revamping of the training program to operate both airlines under the same certificate. Their training shops are struggling with throughput right now. It would be the worst time in the world to add one or more small Jet types and try to get the FAA to certify the new type - not to mention then having to deal with their existing union on LCA/SLI issues for the new type(s).
5. Why on earth would they want to add another fleet type? They are struggling to deal with the type-swapping caused by early retirements during COVID already.
6. The majors do not - as of yet - actually have a shortage of applicants.
Among others…