Originally Posted by
rickair7777
In addition to lower costs there are some tangible benefits (for the majors) to having folks do an internship at the regionals...
1) Allows for an "observation" period to see who screws up, how badly and how often.
If they needed to, they could adapt to wet R-ATPs at the majors/legacies. I'm pretty sure we'll see that at the US LCC's (in fact I already met one from SY... CFI to 737). The legacies could provide a more in-depth training program... the way I'd do it would involve longer/more detailed training followed by a HIGHER than FAA standard checking for new-hires. They'd have to bake some additional selectivity into new-hire/probation screening to account for the loss of the regional filter. That could be tailored to prior experience... pilots with professional turbine experience wouldn't have as many hurdles as a piston R-ATP.
To point 1 - I get the concept, but dead pax are still dead pax whether it’s a 145, Q400, 797, A360, or what have you. Thankfully we haven’t endured that since 2009. Fingers crossed it keeps up indefinitely.
To your last point - Majors are already adapting. F9 has announced a Rotor transition program. I have a couple CFIs in my transition (initial for them) class at Atlas. They’re sharp kids and it seems the hiring department has been pretty selective and followed them through training/CFI time, along with sending them to a jet transition course.
Obviously we know aptitude is predictive of success based on the MIL experience - guess the jury is out WRT how selective the 2nd tier can be once the big 6 start hiring wet ATPs.
Then again the RJ operators have been taking wet R-ATPs since the mid-2010s and commercial pilots in the decade preceding that.