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Old 08-08-2009 | 07:18 AM
  #28  
JungleBus
Gets Weekends Off
 
Joined: Sep 2007
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From: B737 CA
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Originally Posted by eaglefly
- I've seen some of the schedules at at least 2 major carriers and "short" overnights are there too.

-I'm sure there are just as many pilots at majors (percentage wise) who elect to "carry" minor maintenance items improperly. Actually this is impossible to quantify.

- The major airline schedules I've seen also contain long "sits" between flights.

- Plenty of major airline pilots also face the issue of balancing a fatigue call (and lost pay) and continuing on.

By this token (and your assertions), then there are PLENTY of "unprofessional" pilots at major carriers too.

The problem with your position is you attempt to make this industry a black & white world where all (or 90%) of the problems are only at regionals. I don't buy that for a New York minute. Since the financial woes of many of the majors post 9/11 and the concessionary or BK contracts of the last 8 years, these problems exist industry wide. Yes, some of the smaller regionals like Colgan have far more then the average amount of problems (which should be corrected), but not ALL regionals are that way. On the other end of the spectrum, a LARGE percentage of Eagle pilots schedules are pretty good and have 15-18 days off and their 3-day trips aren't THAT bad. Pay rates (especially F/O) for many regionals are another argument, but your continued criticism of the regional industry is based more on emotion then fact.
In all fairness that's essentially because a number of hard-won major airline contracts were turned into regional contracts in BK. UA's narrowbody contract is the perfect example, Contract 2000 got turned into something worse than many regional contracts in BK.
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