You’re exactly right. It hasn’t - thanks to the men and woman willing to keep it that way.

 

DON'T feed the troll!

 

Yes , I spent 8 years in the Air Guard so it's not that I have anything against Military people. Enlisting is one of the best things I have ever done

 

25 pages plus till this gets closed and only read the first one and a half posts.

 

That’s not what I meant.

 

I think it's more than a military fetish or even gung-ho comradeship or respect for the quality of military training. It keeps the cost of the payroll down.

Why WOULD an airline wish to hire a 25 year old at a major when they could hire a 45.year old military retiree? Both are going to get paid based on their seniority.

Say both spend ten years climbing the FO Payscale, then become captains. That's a push for payroll. But then two years later both are going to go over 12 years, essentially maxing out top Payscale for a lot of airlines. But one guy is going to stay there for eight years and then retire - to be replaced if possible with another 45 year old and the process gets repeated. The other is going to stay there for 28 years and retire.

So which group of pilots is going to represent the LOWEST annual personnel cost to the airline over the course of their career? The guy who spends half of his career as an FO - who are needed on a pretty much one for one basis as captains - or the guy who spends three quarters of his career as a captain, most of that at the top of the Payscale? That's pretty simple arithmetic for the HR and accounting people to do.

No, given their druthers, the guys with the green eyeshades and sharp pencils will always prefer the older guy, other factors being essentially equal. The training cost of bringing two 45 year olds up to standard are trivial compared to the cost of bringing one 25 year old up to standard and then eventually paying him top scale for three decades.

Given their druthers, the accountants would rather start the 25 year olds out at a wholly owned regional, and keep him there for 20 years, plugging older flyers from the military and older OTS hires from somebody else's regional in above him so they can reset his seniority back to zero when he does eventually flow to the major.

It isn't personal, just bookkeeping.

 

Perhaps you’ve been blacklisted ...

 

It doesn’t matter how much an individual pilot makes because you’re still going to have to pay for the same number of Captains and FOs to staff the airline whether they start at 25 or 45, and if you’re talking about a career of 20 vs. 40 years, they’re both going to be at the top payscale for their seat for the majority of it. You’re also going to have to significantly increase training costs to run twice as many bodies through training events to account for those shortened careers.

I don’t know that the numbers you’d come up with are that different.

 

It doesn't have anything to do with worship. When I interview an ex-military pilot I KNOW the standardization of training and qualifications that he/she has been required to meet over the course of his/her career.

I KNOW for a fact that they didn't "earn" their licenses at some cheesy Mom and Pop FBO that will pass you as long as you can pay. They didn't get their type ratings at some sim center that will sign you off when your check clears.

They didn't get their PIC experience at some backwater "regional" airline that flies between Denver and Gillette three times a day.

That's why ex-military guys get preference. But, I wouldn't expect non-military types to even begin to comprehend that simple fact.

 

What? I’m non-military and this is pretty easy to comprehend.
So all us civilians are brain dead, eh? Thanks. At least we know where you stand.