Originally Posted by
John Pennekamp
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.
Decent contracts and high experience standards? YGTBSM!
Skywest doesn't have a contract do they?
And Republic has no work rules and a pay scale that sucks big time.
I agree about mainline giving in on scope and the regional pilots have little choice about the subcontracting shell games that management play but they do have a say in their own contracts and they need to stand up for improvements.
Actually, they need to be renamed something else other than "regional" airlines 'cause there's nothing regional about flying MCI to LAX or MKE/MCO. Maybe we could call them Trunk Carriers......no that's been used before.