acl65pilot

As for the wholly owned guys. There is a whole other set of issues that make them very costly. It has more to do with the financial side of them. The pilots will always agree to be paid close to what their contract carrier brethren are paid.

Bucking Bar

Read your contract. It has more to do with preferential hiring from DCI than your reference.

Management does care about the strike. Best I can tell, none of the strikers have been hired. A different target, but still hits the fellow ALPA members that presumably you are angry with.

Those Comair pilots never voted on, or ratified, the outsourcing plan ... we Delta pilots did and NWA did their own "sales job."

Guess it is more fun to blame Comair pilots than put responsibility correctly where it belongs. I'm in for fun, so count me in on futile mud slinging at those who were not even in the room when our Captain seats were sold. But no one should kid themselves about where responsibility (and the power to fix things) actually is.

eaglefly

As one of the dog kickers, you have nothing to worry about from most regional pilots "leapfrogging" over you at your carrier. Those of us who didn't "risk the jump" didn't do so because we were scared. We have done so, because we were among the few that saw the future in between kicks. Many of us knew that you can only kick a dog so many times before that dog is turned against you by others for THEIR interests.

I'm not interested in any "reward" from you. I'll take whatever reward is thrown my way, for that is all I can do. My "reward" is RIGHT HERE and not over there.

So far, it's paid off and it's likely to continue to do so. The senior dogs at the regional level SHOULD be rewarded for their insightful good decisions and in the future they're the segment that's likely to lose the least and gain the most (but will probably lose some).

Keep kicking the dog if you want, but look where that "mentality" has taken you so far.

eaglefly

Yes, if they were smart more than greedy, we likely wouldn't be having this discussion.

eaglefly

Under the PRESENT MODEL, yes.

In the future, A whole new domestic model could be developed with 100 seaters by new entrants. The economics of those aircraft with lower labor costs would be tough for most majors to compete with.

We went from regulation to a deregulated hub and spoke system. That model is running itself into the ground and it's entirely possible for a new model to be successfully implimented.

Your not looking ahead and thinking of all the angles out there. Perhaps it's easier to convince yourself "this could never happen". But that's the mistake that was made with the RJ.

History can and does repeat itself. I think most pilots (being greedy intead of smart) are at high risk of flying themselves directly into a repeat of history.

RAH with 100-seaters could be a successful stand alone company with it's own name. The "new" Midwest Airlines could be the trailblzer that others will follow to set the new model.

Remember ALL this started with the first little 50-seater at Comair.

tomgoodman

True today, but in the past these items would probably have been the "kiss of death" on an application:

1. working for a DAL feeder like Comair or ASA
2. working for a major competitor

At the time, it was considered bad manners to "raid" such employees.

They overwhelmingly preferred ex-military pilots under age 30, but would make exceptions based on the available supply.

Eric Stratton

I'm not looking ahead because I am talking about the present. Presently regions can't negotiate for larger airplanes unless mainline pilots give them up or they start their own flying.

Anything can happen in the future. That is true.

eaglefly

Think about this folks;

Who would be more profitable in the future if competing against each other on any given route - A 130-seat SWA 737 with their labor costs or Midwest Airlines with a 100-seater with theirs ?

I say the Midwest flight.

Midwest could have a couple of hundred of these in 5 years.

If it could beat SWA what do you think about an AA 737 or DAL A320 ?

Hopeless, unless every labor group on the property agrees to competitive compensation (in effect, making THEM regional pilots), but with their bloated infrastructures and top heavy employee groups it's HIGHLY unlikely.

Those carriers would have to sell assets to start another seperate carrier just to compete or be left in the dust.

This industry is on the cusp of another reinvention. Just as that first little 50-seater changed everything over 15 years ago, The first little 100-seater at Midwest may in retrospect be looked at 15 years from now as the final nail in the current domestic airline model.

Perhaps it's more fun to keep kicking the dog in hope for change, but again these A/C are coming to Midwest and will come to other regionals eventually and one way or the other.

It's too late.

eaglefly

Agreed.

But IMO "looking at the present" is what allowed this situation to develop. Looking into the future is why I'm still at a regional. No perfect odds for me, but it's a hand I believe will be stronger as time marches forward.

Enjoy the present, for it likely to be the best it will be.

RichieAshburn

Don't tell me about kicking the dog. I'm prior Mil, Regional and now at a Major. Been through a furloughed, the PFT period(I refused),good and bad contracts and several cycles in this profession. My mentality is one of perseverance, risk, success and reward while obtaining my professional goals. Just because your goal of being a regional pilot has been accomplished, don't think the rest of us should pull for your success while watching our company give regionals more flying. The mentality at Majors is changing. Don't be too sure that the regionals will "lose the least and gain the most". I'm sure you're not that naive, although you seem to think you can predict the future.