Originally Posted by
UnlimitedAkro
It's no ones fault but ourselves and the people who continue to work at these regionals with poor work rules and pay. There are so many pilots out there thirsty for these flying jobs. The airlines know they can pay nickels and dimes to these pilots, just look at the stack of resumes that continues to grow.
More and more pilots have been getting stuck at regionals, and living out their careers there. Meanwhile, flying jobs have been slowly declining over the years at mainline, and with the exception of the recession, regional jobs continue to grow. Outsourcing of pilots not only has become popular, it has become the goal. If you were an executive at an airline, wouldnt you want to cut your costs in any way you can?
It's about time we stand up as a group and say enough is enough.
But sadly, when the doors open again for hiring in the near future, the lines will be long of pilots willing to fly for pennies. Many of us complain about our pay- about our work rules, some of us continue our jobs with the hope of a mainline career in the near future- yet it seems to grow farther and farther from reach as time goes on, and no one has does anything to improve our work situtation.
Um, okay.
So what do you suggest for someone who really wants to be a pilot when they grow up? The last time I checked, no "mainline" carriers hire newly minted pilots. Even most of the "acceptable" regionals like SkyWest, Republic, and ASA who have decent contracts have high experience standards for hiring. What should people do... just choose a different career? Because YOU say they are wrong to go to a crap carrier?
Here's the point. Continually hearing pilots who have "made it" to a good regional (yeah I know, an oxymoron... go ahead and say it) or a "mainline" carrier tell aspiring pilots that they need to pay their dues... but then telling them they're scum and undercutters for going to a crappy carrier is getting ridiculous.
As I said on another thread (Virgin America) this isn't the industry of 1977 anymore. Nowadays, paying your dues means working your way up through the commuters, then the regionals, then hoping for that "coveted" mainline job at a legacy carrier or even an LCC.
Don't fault the pilots playing the game, fault the pilots who created the game by pushing for fences (failed scope policies) when they should have been pushing for unity (one list) back in the 90s and early 2000s.