Pilot Shortage from a different vantage point
 

We all know the regional airlines will have a hard time finding pilots, but what about the majors?

Who will the majors hire without hurting their own operation due to canceled flights by their regional partners if they can't staff their planes?

If the majors hire hundreds from their code share regional partners, will that have a negative effect on their very own operation if their customers who are flying the express brands are inconvenienced because flights can't be staffed due to the vacuum created by retirements?

Do you think the legacy carriers will look more to pursue pilots from Spirit, JetBlue, Virgin, Frontier, and Alligiant who all have Airbus type rated pilots and will not have a negative affect on their express operation?

Do you think the planners at the legacies are already thinking about this? Some of my friends at my current regional are certain that our management is telling our legacy partners not to hire us.

Thoughts?

Cheers!!

Easy, poach your competitor's feeder partners and make them unable to man their operation.

I've notice everyone is focusing on pilot shortages at the majors, but its obvious there will not be any shortages on that side of the equation, however there will be a shortage at the regional airlines. I suspect when the well runs dry of "qualified" upgrades, I suspect you will see new-hire street captains.

Airplane surplus.

http://cdn-www.airliners.net/aviatio.../5/2214561.jpg

Maybe we will see the "regionals" go back to where they where in the early 90s.

This is a lot of wasted capital.
Maybe a Middle East carrier will take them ... and that will lead to their eventual financial problems, slowing their mainline growth....:)

Not really that easy. Every express carrier out there seems to fly for more than one major carrier. Also with all the legacy carriers hiring you wind up poaching each other's pilots.

What will cure the shortage myth will be significant reductions in 50 seaters and not a one for one replacement. Also consider the number of qualified pilots that are no longer active in the industry ex Comair comes to mind and others that left just because the regionals became a deadend with age 65.

Don't buy into the shortage myth. There are still student starts and more applicants than jobs at the majors. With reductions coming in airframes at the regionals I bet there will never be a shortage.

Sarcasm, I like it!!!!!

While the competitior poaches your regional feeders, making them unable to man your feeder's operation.

Mutually assured domestic lift destruction.

And with many feeders flying multiple paint jobs, and said feeder pilots flying multiple paint sometimes in a single day, well.....

We at B6 are worried about this as both Delta and AA have stated that hiring B6 pilots should be included. If they intentionally poach B6 pilots we could be parking newly delivered airplanes.

If the regionals can't attract enough pilots to feed the majors, perhaps that would force the majors to fly more narrow bodies into those markets. More opportunities for major jobs.

On a related note, with major airlines hiring, are the corporate/fractionals losing pilots?