Originally Posted by
Excargodog
Regionals are always economically constrained by the fact that they are codeshare -,they don’t sell their own tickets. But for Skywest - and most regionals right now - they have more FOs than they can gainfully employ. Because they can’t keep enough CAs. Despite DEC bonuses and credit for longevity at other regionals. And increasingly, they can’t keep their own senior FOs long enough to become upgrade eligible. No amount of zero 121 time FOs coming in at the bottom will change that until the majors stop hiring.
Adding new FOs when you don’t have the CAs you need o optimally utilize the ones you have simply slows the progress toward the day your existing FOs will be upgrade eligible by diluting out the SIC hours available - which just encourages the experienced FOs to jump to ULCCs or ACMI.
https://www.ft.com/content/70f0805c-...9-aabb0ea36324
Yes, I am fully aware of this problem. But Skywest forced upgrades and how many folks left due to that? They had an opportunity to poll the pilots anonymously to find out why they didn't want to upgrade and offer them incentives that would make them feel good about upgrading. Isn't it cheaper to give certain incentives to your current pilots then have to pay bonuses and training for new DECs? What if you gave those pilots certain alternatives they could chose from, such as (1) remain in the base they are currently in (2) longevity match (3) additional paid training, etc., and you can chose one of those alternatives to make the transition better? It doesn't work in the regional model to have FO lifers, it reduces the pull needed to train new pilots. But with all the smart folks working there, they can't come up with a better model that significantly reduces the problem? It seems shortsighted because the way the market is now if management doesn't get more creative, they are going to struggle with this problem for a long time and it will negatively impact operations and financial outcomes for years.