Originally Posted by
Purpleanga
I get your point. But ATP mins are not practical, not to mention hiring is done by the market conditions at the regionals. The only way that what you are saying is possible is if the gov itself forced the regionals to hire only high timers which will never happen. It's none of their business to tell the airlines how to run their hiring, especially right now. As I stated before these pilots were high timers, the fo had 1600 at the time of hire and a few hundred hours on the q, that wasn't the issue. The people that have any power over this matter will be looking at the training quality and schedules at the regionals.
The government CAN force regionals to hire higher time pilots by making it mandatory that all Part 121 pilots must have an ATP. That's not dictating hiring practices, it's just setting a standard. Just like you need a Commercial license to be a CFI. Plus, it would tighten up the supply/demand, resulting in higher wages. There's no downside to making this mandatory.