Originally Posted by
johnso29
If it meant getting rid of shoddy companies that pay crap & treat their employees like dirt just to secure flying, you bet I'd do it. The issue is that the regional/commuter flying evolved from just B1900's, EMB120's, J32's, J41's, Metroliners, etc to CRJ100/200's, EMB135/140/145's & CRJ700/900's, EMB175's. I think that's why you're seeing them say all flying. Even the Saabs & Dashes. Bring it all back, for the good of the industry.
I would love to fly ATRs, especially the new 600 series. I never got to fly them and would enjoy them. I've done the international 767 thing, that was a lot of fun, but so are props and I'd enjoy them too for a while. If you ask a CAL pilot I think they're sure as hell willing to take the Dash 8-400s back on property in a heart beat.
The question I would like to ask is would pilots who've been flying RJs at FL370 want to go back to props, not even new ones but used ATR-425s and 725s and Dash 8-200s/300s, if it meant job security? I think it was ASA's legendary Joe Merchant who said he now flies a 50 seat RJ on the same routes he flew a 70 seat ATR and burns the same amount of fuel. Seems it'd be better to dump the 50 seaters ASAP and go all prop.
Originally Posted by
reelbigchair
In the hopes of reaching a compromise between the traditionals, lifers, and those already senior at mainline. Would anyone have trouble with this concept. I think it could be palatable for just about everyone. This assumes that the RJ flying was brought back onto property via an aquisition. What if mainline brought on all the regional pilots to the mainline certificate carrying all their seniority and longevity with them, but only while on the RJ. Should a lifer at the regional decide to bid over to the main part of the airline, they would then revert to their DOH at the mainline company. In reverse, should a mainline pilot desire to move back into the regional seat for any reason, they would revert to a DOH of when the regional was aquired. It maintains everyone's QOL, and pay, while also providing RJ guys with all the benefits of gaining a mainline job earlier in their career. And it would provide furlough protection for the junior folks at mainline. Call me a dreamer, but with the RJ industry consolidating, there won't be nearly as many pilot groups to deal with, and mainline could potentially recapture all the RJ's by purchasing only a few airlines.
It's a reasonable concept, if the main concern is keeping lifer RJ pilots happy. Staple all of the RJ pilots and fence that flying in. I don't think mainline pilots would allow it to be a permanent thing, the fence would need to come down rather quickly (like within a year) so they can have access to the left seat.
I think another issue would be the size of it, say Delta said we'll take XJT/ASA. Well, they'd probably (if rumors are ture) immediately get park a vast majority of the 50 seat CRJs and ERJs. Leaving CRJ700s and a few 900s and one or two thousand pilots on the street, albeit with a number. And would Delta be willing to take on such a large number of pilots you never hired?
Another issue for Delta, and a major one that ends just about most dreams, is controlling debt and why take on a fleet of new RJs (in the case of the CRJ700+s and Ejets) when you can buy a 160 seat miserly fuel sipping line-ready MD90 for $8M? And 717s might be coming available and you can always look for more MD80s like Allegiant did at $4m line-ready. And one day you'll be able to get used A319s cheap.
If Delta stapled Compass, then you'd have 300 or so pilots that NWA and recently DAL did hire. You'd have the E175s. Seems great. But it was talked about and argued about ad nausem before and it didn't happen and now probably will never happen as they were sold.
The most likely scenerio for mainline pilots to take back flying is to move scope down or hold it and let increasing costs at DCI eventually cause airplanes to be parked and contracts not renwed. If its true that RA "wants out of the RJ business" then it's a plausible way to do it.