Originally Posted by
Eric Stratton
Regional airlines have benefited (grown) 10 fold but where have the regional pilots benefited 10 fold? It sure isn't in wages and career earnings! If you believe that the regional pilots goal was to be a regional pilot rather than work for a major then yes, they have benefited 10 fold. Somehow I don't believe that most regional pilots went to school to work for the regionals. How many dream to fly a Canadair vs a Boeing?
I'm glad that you brought up BK wages. Let's look at compass. NWA pilots authorised compass in their BK contract. The compass contract is even worse than NWA's BK contract! That is pretty sad when pilots sign BK contracts (that most seem to hate) and then sign off on a worse one for a newly formed wholey owned. What do they really care though, they aren't gonna work under it, only that regional will. But hey I'm sure compass pilots benefited 10 fold on that one! I mean what could be better than work for compass and then have to start over when you go to NWA (now delta). Benefits all around for starting over at 1st year pay and longevity.
The argument is still fulling intact but waiting for your rebuttal on how regional pilots have benefited 10 fold by outsourcing.
It's really not that hard to understand. BK judges allowed ridiculous amounts of outsourcing, & as a result thousands of RJ CA jobs opened up. Pilots instantly passed up years of flight instructing, pipeline patrol, flying checks, etc. Many stepping stones were flat out taken out of the process.
I myself benefited from this RJ explosion by holding RJ CA in less then 2 years. Many friends are the same. The fact is that stagnation has occured due to the economy and the inefficiency of the 50 seater. You can blame wages on Mainline all you want, but they're not the ones that voted in wages at ExpressJet, Colgan, Comair, Mesa, RAH, etc. Their own pilot groups voted for those rates. Compass was a unique situation which I wasn't a part of.