Originally Posted by
RJSAviator76
I still find the whole thing ridiculous, and I find it sad that people are so focused on a pimple when the rest of the body is bleeding.
GoJet, along with Skywest, ASA, Compass, TSA, Mesa and others, are CONTRACT carriers. They do not own their flying. Their flying has been determined by the mainline carrier at the cost of mainline pilots' jobs. Let's not forget the whole fee-for-departure scheme that allowed some contract airlines to use some CRJ's and put a true career airline out of business through shady illegal practices... but hey, they're ALPA brothers, right? Oh yeah right... Mesa sucks.
Regional pilots and that mentality, in my opinion, are the cancer. Look around the developed world - your brand new regional pilot doesn't qualify for food stamps elsewhere.. but here, if you have family, congratulations... by accepting employment with <insert any US regional airline> you just qualified for government cheese.
But hey, let's ignore all that and start bashing another contract airline... All I can say is... pot meet kettle.
I say good on GoJet for having taken as many furloughees from places like ATA, UAL, Midwest, etc. It might be a crappy operation, but it allowed people from real airlines to find some sanctuary after being thrown on the street.
Very nice post, got me all teary eyed, but you missed the real problem. If places like go jet and other regioal operators, with pilots willing to fly for peanuts, didn't exist then the flying wouldn't be outsourced and mainline pilots wouldn't need a sanctuary after being thrown to the street.
Personally, after being thrown to the gutter, I couldn't bring myself to consider going to go jet under jet for jobs because I would only be outsourcing myself. I even turned down the Skywest jet for job when offered because it just wasn't worth it to me. At this point in life I'm just not willing to give any more back to the career, it has taken enough already with very little in return.
The real solution is to return all flying to mainline, and have leaders run the company not bean counters. Bean counters are never able to look at the intangeble costs and benifits of actions and often leave a path of devestation after thier departure for someone else to clean up.