ZeroTT

Is there some great reservoir of experienced FO’s whose jobs are so bad that 2-3 years of reserve is attractive? Or are all these street captain bonuses just a desperation ploy

JayBee

I'm guessing they are hoping to poach from the Private/Charter/Corporate world where people's huge egos couldn't stomach being an FO

but yea you can only get so many cross regional transfers

havick206

The street CA well depth is proportional to the amount of contract airlines losing their flying to other regionals. No one really wants to see the this happen but it does serve those FO’s that have the hours or junior CA’s that are in a worsening situation without a lot of skin in the game at their current regional.

Cyio

Personally I dont think the well is that deep. The only ones that really benefit from DEC programs are:

1. pilots that for some reason dont think they can get in with a mainline job without some sort of flow. No education, marks on record etc. It would serve them well to give up their seniority at a current job for the chance at a flow.

2. Captains that upgraded quickly and dont have a lot of seniority so won't feel the QOL change very much. Not a whole lot of these people around in my opinion. Being bottom of the rung is not a place I would ever want to be, especially given that anyone hired before you will always be pushing you back down. I will say this is a good gig for very specific people, but they are rare.

3. Financial troubles. Pretty much speaks for itself. Those that need the money will deal with the negatives to help themselves or family out of a bind. Cant blame them one bit for this decision.

Beyond that, there may be some rare examples but I just dont think the QOL decrease is worth it for most. Better to just stick it out where you are and try to get a LCC or Mainline job.

ZeroTT

Curious if this could be a directed, actively predatory move. Could they decimate a single regional, force it to fold then set loose a whole class of pilots?

Excargodog

Possible but unlikely. What does it cost to recruit and type-rate 500 pilots? Call it a $10K per hiring bonus, three months minimum pay during training, three months hotels, sims, cost of instructors, you gotta be looking at $15 million as an absolute minimum. So do you break that working group up, in hopes that you can put them through ANOTHER training in hopes that you can add a percentage of those to your existing pilot group as DECs?

You are likely to lose a lot of them, even if you take over the flying they were originally doing in the same equipment. Why would you do this - especially if you WERE flying the same equipment? Easier and cheaper to either force upgrades of your existing FOs who have the requisite 1000 hours or just buy and merge seniority lists. Yes, merging seniority lists always gets ugly, but the ugliness is handled by the unions and the negotiator under McCaskill-Bond, so little of the cr@p settles on management.

Of course, they could address the QOL issues of their junior captains that compell their FOs to put off upgrade until they can hold a base and a line. Perhaps through better scheduling requiring fewer people to be on reserve, especially in places no one much likes being on reserve, which would shorten duration for those doing that. Positive space and hotels woukd help too. All those would be expensive of course, but no more expensive than buying a regional just to break it up and hoping you'll get DECs from it.

That seems more a formula to give LCCs cheap FOs.

flysooner9

Not about the ego but it’s about the paycheck. Many of the corporate guys coming back over are leaving good paying jobs and can’t afford to live on FO pay again. Has nothing to do with ego.

bigtime209

The well will get deeper as the regional consolidation goes further and as time goes on.

havick206

No, it’s just a byproduct of consolidation.

Mechanics probably have a bigger shortage than pilots.

flyguy727

Many of us in the industry, come to the 121 for the title, "Airline Pilot" that title used to mean something, when people only saw the guys flying the big metal. Now, people know the reality of things, and basically can't understand why we would subject ourselves to such lifestyle, for such low pay. Things have gotten better, and will continue to get better up to a point. In the up coming years, there will be drastic change's in the industry, with some reginalds folding to due lack of pilots. Some 135 operators are now paying much better money, fly more interesting routes, so some people may chose to stay corporate. Some of us, like myself, will go fly boxes, opting not to go to the majors. If you go to the big 135s, swift, netjets and flexjet, you'll be flying new, equipment, high paying job, and better routes.

Good luck to all on your journey!

God Speed!