We sold scope protection? We never had it.

I'm not expecting anyone to sacrifice for me. Think of it as sacrificing for YOURSELVES. The more flying low wage carriers take from the mainlines, the fewer mainline jobs available for YOU.

Hope you'll be content as a career regional Captain.

I can only hope that Smisek will come to his senses and pull the plug on RAH being they are flying for UAL and competing with UAL at the same time.

Not exactly. SkyWest has many more 700's and has the economies of scale to do it cheaper and (maybe) better. Pilot cost is just a part of it. If it was only pilot cost, there are many other airlines who pay less.

If I was a stockholder for Horizon/Alaska and the company didn't use a more efficient operation, I would have cause to sue. Notice I didn't say cheaper. In the total picture you've gotta be more efficient.

Let me get this right, you want the regional guys to quit and go to home depot because YOU don't think THEY make enough? Give me a break. Since when have you been appointed the arbitrator of "wage correctness"

Say regionals all flew 30 seat TP. When times got tough what's to stop guys from moaning about that plane. There would be advocates touting anything bigger than a Cessna182 should be on mainline.

If times had kept rolling strong for years and you 747 guys sold scope to (insert random number here)seats then suddenly the debate moves further along the scale.

You're like most others on this board. No workable solutions, just over simplification and lashing out at the wrong people.

Welcome to capitalism, ain't it grand!

I agree that regionals have damaged our professions but what are you willing to give up to take back the flying? The reality of the situation is that mainline management isn't going to bring the small jets back to mainline fleets unless you give them a reason. Whether this be concessions or some proof that it will save them cash in the long run I don't know. All in all this is a stupid argument. The fact of the matter is that people wouldn't be taking these RJ jobs if they weren't there to take. Remember that as a regional pilot I don't decide how much flying we get or what size airplane my company is allowed to fly. These are negotiated in contracts that I have no control over. If you want these jobs to go away then reign in scope. Be willing to walk over it too. If today I say screw it and call the company and quit there are 1000's of other guys waiting in line to replace me. Me quitting my job or the new pilot not applying to a regional doesn't do anything to the underlying problem. Regionals aren't just gonna go away because you don't like them. The only way I see these regionals going away is if you mainline pilots force them to by having a contract that doesn't allow them. It's simple economics, if there's a market theres gonna be someone with a product. You guys go on and on about how you need the regionals to go away but you have no solutions to the problem grounded in reality. You can't just make them go away by telling people that regionals are bad and you shouldn't take the jobs. Taking back scope is a mainline problem not a regional problem. And if you never had any scope protection maybe it would be a good time to think about getting some...

From the responses, it is apparent you guys don't really care that you're killing off the jobs you aspire to. Regional Airline Pilot...your career destination.

There is no way mainline pilots are going to sell scope for pay, bargaining credits, cookies and triple time jailhouse lawyer work rules and yet be able to reasonably expect that once they get the said payoff those positions will remain unfilled. Just how stupid does anyone think management is? (Stupid versus incompetent).

We sell flying to management for the express purpose (pun intended?) of shopping that flying to th lowest bidder yet we have reason to expect that there will be no low bidder? Really? So then what, management has to come crawling and begging us to please take that flying back on our list, completely on our terms. So we sell them the flying, get our few pieces of silver, and then management turns right around and gives that flying back to us as they beg for mercy? LOL!

The problem isn't the SJS salivating, backpack carrying, Oakley wearing, iPod listening guy with the frosted tips and Riddle lanyard bragging about how he does "Delta and United flying" and calling his large RJ "the 9" with a "Guppy Killer" sticker on his flight kit. The problem is 100% the mainline pilot groups, leaderships and memberships, that are willing to gut the profession as a whole and their airlines in particular, as long as they think they can maybe get one CBA's worth of slightly higher pay out of it or maybe take a tiny amount of sting out of a round of concessions.

Flying was sold to management for the sole purpose of management then shopping that flying to the lowest bidder. To reasonably expect to get paid for that and then have an entire industry worth of empty classes until that flying is being done for as much or more than it would have been had it not been sold for that exact purpose is a very poor bargaining stratedgy.

So where are we now. We have some momentum with massive capacity dicipline, mega consolidation, significant retirements approaching and just maybe some net favorable work rule improvements and increased hiring mins. Yet the biggest airline in the galaxy's head honcho says to his troops "I hear you loud and clear boys, you want pay as your number one concern!"

That is the problem, not some SJS positive wonderkid who lusts after dreams of Paris-First-Class-Intrnational which, BTW, the only way to achieve is to get turbine time and/or PIC by any means necessary in the first place.

This is a mainline problem and as such will require, 100%, a mainline solution. If ALPA is really the one who keeps pulling the football away from Charlie Mainline pilot then ALPA needs to be replaced, but before that is a viable option we have to self educate to the point where a significant majority of the membership is loud and clear about scope being the number one issue. We are not there yet, but it appears we are finally making progress.

From your responses, it is apparent you aren't willing to accept responsibility for the consequences of your actions with regards to the sale of scope...or offer realistic options for recapturing it going forward.

Funny thing...ALPA doesn't ratify contracts that sell mainline scope, mailine pilots do.

$1,000,000,000 in annual revenue
that's $1 billion