Originally Posted by
fadec
The regional pay rates look great in 2025, but no regional will exist in 2025. They're done, and we can make them done faster by accepting a modest 5% raise in order to remain cost competitive with our regional brethren. Look, I worked for 11 years at the regionals for **** pay and no job security. I came here to retire. And in order to make that happen I'm prepared to remain cost competitive with Skywest labor until age 67 if it takes that long. So what if I don't own a boat. So what if I live in a trailer park and commute. The lost decade trained me to live within my means and that's a huge advantage. Skywest to $300k/yr. ??? Great. I can live on $180k easily. That's huge money in my book. If it gets me to age 67 without strikes and furloughs that's fine. You watch. Those $300k regional wonders are a flash in the pan. Slow and steady wins the race.
This is literal absurdity and incredibly flawed thinking. $180,000 or even $300,000 really isn’t that much money. I made over $170,000 my last year at a regional BEFORE these new pay rates.
We would all need 30%+ pay raises just to get back to where this profession was 20 years ago. Inflation is killing the purchasing power of our hard earned dollars. So as I have stated before, do a pay comparison. Even a 20% raise will mean that regional Captains are still making more than legacy Captains in some cases.
And yes, regionals are going to shrink. But at airlines like AA they are incredibly dependent on regional lift to generate revenue. While Delta and United have seen fit to bring that flying in-house, American is running the opposite direction. They have no choice. So there will be regional airlines around in some capacity moving forward. And they likely WILL have to be paid well to staff the flying. These pay rates may not be going away as fast as some think.