OrionTanker

Kind of interesting that the EU agreement has come out at the same time as the min requirements are needed for ATP. Hmmmm...

anothermember

On these cruise ships leaving from US ports there are a lot of people who do not speak English well (I'm not talking about Spanish as a first language). Most of the Euro kids on these ships speak three or four languages. As an American businessman catering to a wide customer base, who would you hire?

The US pilots are less expensive than Euro counterparts. I'm sure many on this web board are more up to date than I am, but ten plus years ago the UK airline I flew for (contract) had to give their employees 42 days vacation a year from year one, and paid 11% gross employee earnings into a pension fund **not run by the company**. The flight and duty limits were all based on the number of flights a day: the more legs the less you could be on duty. This all adds up to more crews. More expense. AF cannot do any flights at a lower cost than DL because their work rules are even better. What will happen is, during contract talks the flying will migrate to the other coast, this works both ways. This is the contraction/hardship then expansion we are all used to in negotiations.
But in the end it is all about money. Not ours, theirs. The more money other people put into our companies the more they will grow. A foreign businessman is not going to sink a lot of money into US airline in order to lose it, they are here to make money. And no, I don't work for VA.