Originally Posted by
BoilerUP
I can understand why a guy on the street from Aloha or ATA is ****ed that Mesaba is hiring sub-1000hr guys right now when they have thousands of hours and can't get anything to help pay their mortgage. I can also understand why Mesaba is doing it...
You have to look at it from managements perspective here. They are looking at you as a cost vs benefit. The amount it costs to train you vs the amount of time you can be online generating revenue.
Think about this hypothetical situation. (BTW I'm guessing on some of my numbers)
Pilot A is a 10,000hr former 737CA w/ ATA
Mesaba hires pilot A and spends $15,000 training him in the CRJ. He stays for a year and a half and leaves for a corporate job. Now mesaba has to spend $15,000 to train his replacement.
Pilot B is a 700hr CFI
Mesaba hires pilot B and spends $15,000 training him in the CRJ. He is a FO for three years and then upgrades. He stays as a Captain for 10 years and then moves on to the Majors (they gotta hire sometime
). Mesaba now has to spend $15,000 to train his replacement.
The point is that with lowtime guys management knows that those pilots are more likely going to stick around longer (on the line generating revenue) than those higher time guys. As an added bonus too, management and scheduling may be able to pull a few fast ones on pilot B, that Pilot A might call the BS flag on.