Yes, one of the more idiotic statements ever made on APC.

Incredibly ignorant. It hasn't always been 50% of the flying was done by regionals. Infact in the beginning of the decade I think it was around 5%. Either way, people can't gtfo if there is no where to go. It is the majors that turned regional flying into a career decision instead of a stepping stone by shifting more flying from mainline to the regionals.

I hate to tell you this, but airline flying is a pyramid. Not everyone is going to get on with the majors, no matter how many pilots they hire.

Wrong. Some people just want to live where they can fly. Horizon guys like PDX. SKW guys love SLC. Why should they be denied a living wage so YOU can have their left seat? Who's the greedy one in that case?

Exactly my point. There are guys who retired after a 20-25 year military career and want/need nothing more than Regional Captain pay to have a happy, fulfilling 2nd career...especially if they can live/work in base.

Correct on all points. It amazes me how EVERY young stud ASSUMES they'll make it to the majors.

Hehe..dang man..what you be smokin there bucko? Generation entitlement much? That's some first class bafoonery paired with a nice showing of jackassery kid...

You may want to see a surgeon and have that spoon removed before you end up swallowing it.

MESA CEO isn't the only one...
 

It appears Republic's Bryan Bedford received his copy of the RAA talking points in the mail so that all of them can be on the same band wagon:

Republic?s Bedford Calls for New Pilot Pay Model | Aviation International News

I'm gonna have to go ahead and sort of AGREE with you there! With one exception, of course: if, from the get-go, your career goal was to be a regional lifer.
In my case, from my first fight lesson I wanted to fly for a legacy. Therefore if I never leave RAH, I consider MY career a failure and myself a loser. I

Please don't feed the Trolls or they'll start charging more to cross the bridge...

I am an outsider, I fly alot - and I think you guys fighting each other and taking sides against one another is VERY COUNTERPRODUCTIVE.

It should not be a question of take money away from Capt's to give to FO's, both of which have a professional responsibility for the safety of paying customers, other employees, and expensive assets of either their employer's company or that of their employer's customer. It should be an effort to stand up for an acceptable wage / work rules for both pilots. If increases are made in the size of the whole pie and it is disproportionately given to captains, then indeed that should be dealt with internally, but the existing discrepancy has more to do with inordinately low FO pay, not exorbitantly high Capt pay.

I believe to have captains making six figures is OK, but to have FO's making $20k to $40k is NOT OK - my life and the other flying public deserves more "credit' than that. But, it is up to each of you as pilots and all of you as pilots to make the efforts necessary to educate both new pilots and the public.

That takes effort on many fronts - some will suffer, some will fail - but you have made some strides forward, do not allow those not aligned with your future progress to get you to fail due to in-fighting.

You as individual pilots have no direct control over the existence of regional airlines, or their business model. You can influence them of course, but where you have control is how you interact with each other, what you accept as pay and work rules, and how / where you communicate. I suggest you work toward making this an acceptable work wage and conditions, so that when conditions beyond your control make you a "regional lifer", then you can look back and realize that your llife and your career are distinctly different, and perhaps you can leave the career prospects better for those coming behind you.

Mr. Bedford said “I don’t think that model works and perhaps the next regional that figures out how to more rationalize pay between the two seats will be one of the winners in the future.”

But isn't that in direct contradiction to the whole reason regional airlines exist in the first place? So you can have different pay tiers for doing the same job as the legacies? You can't have your cake and eat it too because the real solution puts Mr. Bedford out of a job.

Maybe Mr. Bedford should have said this instead "I don't think that model works and perhaps the next major airline that figures out how to more rationalize pay between the larger and smaller aircraft types will be one of the winners in the future."

Having said that maybe Mr. Bedford would care to propose a new pay structure for parties to evaluate. I can't stand it when people do nothing but point out problems but refuse to offer a solution of their own.

Having said all this, I think his solution might be the only thing that saves Silver Airways from folding. It's too late for Great Lakes as they will likely fold before the end of this month.

GTFO becomes harder and harder, if pilots keep chasing upgrade and will take low pay just to move on, because the jobs to which you can move disappear. It is the conundrum that has been played so well against the pilots. Go to a crappy regional in hopes of getting out quickly, but instead the crappy regional expands because it's labor costs are so low. As this happens, mainline jobs shrink.

There used to be crappy and not so bad regionals to go to; now they all are crappy. How'd that GTFO strategy work?