Originally Posted by rickair7777

Wrong. It has always been, and still is, 100% in the hands of mainline. It's their flying, not anyone else's, and they need to secure it.

Regional wages are defined by the entry-level, which means flight instructors. Even if they have a clue, which they usually don't, they are not likely to pass up a regional job if it means remaining a CFI. A few will hold out for a non-bottom-feeder, but that's about the most you're going to get out of them. The idea that they are going to hold out for higher wages is ludicrous.

By the time they are making a regional decision they are past V1, the flight training scam industry has already sucked them dry and left them in debt beyond any rational expectation of return on investment. The only things that will help at th entry-level are...

- Responsible financing: It seems as though lenders may be wising up on this. We can only hope.

- ATP Requirement: In addition to enhancing safety, this should scare away some of the zero-to-hero wannabes at the get-go and also raise entry-level wages to something at least livable.

- Education: Too many newbies have "misconceptions" (actually lies perpetuated by puppy mills and aviation colleges) about the impending "pilot shortage"... they think they will be a $300K+ widebody CA 5-6 years after CPL. There's no formal way to address this, it's more of a grass roots kind of thing. We can do it here on the various forums, or face-to-face if you stumble on someone interested a flying career. Actually alpa could organize some thing like this...sponsor volunteer-staffed pilot-career info sessions at local airports. The alpa name would be enough to draw in attendees. It wouldn't cost much at all, but I suspect the ROI would be very good.