Originally Posted by
Excargodog
Facts are facts whether they are the ones we wish or not. Regionals are starting to fail, despite substantial pay increases as their CAs are being hired away. The FOs are going to go somewhere, if only to get a new type and more 121 hours to become competitive - even with NKs first year pay.
But the under utilized inventory is still an overhead cost. When you are flying more than ever before with more aircraft than ever before yet still not making money, you can’t keep it up forever. Management can either do something to increase retention or start selling aircraft delivery slots and I don’t think JetBlue would put up with the latter.
What are you talking about? The only regionals to “fail” are Compass and Express Jet. Both closed shop well before the current regional pay increases. There are rumors of Blow Jet and one/two others having issues, but the fact remains no one has failed since this has started with legitimate pay.
Id argue that all remaining regionals (despite obvious CA attrition leaving for legacies) probably have a solid chance of replacing them when someone enters into the career-field at 1500 hours now flying a RJ at $90-100+ an hour vs $30 a few years ago.
I have a friend who is a banker. Has PPL/Inst on the side and has 900ish hours. It’s obvious his passion in life is flying, but getting his last 600ish hours and taking a MASSIVE pay cut at regional pay (what it was prior to now) wasn’t worth it. Now he’s seriously considering it.