Originally Posted by
texaspilot76
I disagree. More pay for more experience. Then we wouldn't be trapped at any airline. It would give pilot groups more leverage. Management screws pilots because they know that they wont go anywhere else because they would lose pay and seniority. If a pilot could jump ship to another airline, then management would be at a disadvantage.
Of course is the way this should work, but it will not work because there is no reason for it to be that way. As someone said, a commercial license is the same as a commercial license, 250 hours or 25,000.
If I'm an HR Person, I ask the question: "Why do I care about experience?"
Answer: I don't care. If they can pass training, we're good. Captains having trouble with poorly experienced pilots? Doesn't matter. it saves the company money anyway.
A 250 hour pilot that safely watches the autopilot from A to B is worth just as much as a 25,000 hour pilot that does the same thing by hand. The Difference? One costs more. It only matters when something goes wrong. And that's a rare thing, and its going to keep getting rare with more automation.
And there's a lot more 250 hour pilots in the labor market than there are 25,000 hour pilots. Training and automation is filling the gap left by experience, so unless the FAA sets minimum experience requirements for a 121 F/O, it won't change, and the pay won't go up. By the time we run out of 250 hour pilots, we lower the minimums again. That's right. Multi-crew.