Many of us spent a lot of time in the regionals before we moved on. Additionally, the regional model of career progression feeds our airlines new pilots. If that fails it’s going to be more challenging for us to grow.

Not necessarily. The majors and legacy airlines will just hire 1,500 hour pilots straight from flight school.

Will that provide the same margin of safety as having someone in the right seat that has 2500 hours of flying, 1500 of that in the regionals?

or perhaps more accurately, HOW do we assure that it does?

In addition to lower costs there are some tangible benefits (for the majors) to having folks do an internship at the regionals...

1) Allows for an "observation" period to see who screws up, how badly and how often. This is particularly relevant in our industry where there are few opportunities to objectively measure pilot quality/skill.

2) Allows for an observation period for "whole person" factors, inter-personal behavior, reliability, etc. IMO especially important for young folks.

1&2 are important because once you hire someone into a union system, it's really hard to get rid of them unless they screw up in the first year.

3) The actuaries will always prefer that the more experienced pilots fly the larger liability equipment. Can they insure 250 hour pilots on 777's? Sure, the rest of the world does it. But they'd rather not given a choice.

4) Mil pilot recruiting... if they have to start on low paid RJ's with crap schedules, a lot of them won't bother. You'd still get 32 y/o O-3's's willing to pay dues for the long-term payoff, but retirees will probably get jobs in other sectors (which they can do easily).


If they needed to, they could adapt to wet R-ATPs at the majors/legacies. I'm pretty sure we'll see that at the US LCC's (in fact I already met one from SY... CFI to 737). The legacies could provide a more in-depth training program... the way I'd do it would involve longer/more detailed training followed by a HIGHER than FAA standard checking for new-hires. They'd have to bake some additional selectivity into new-hire/probation screening to account for the loss of the regional filter. That could be tailored to prior experience... pilots with professional turbine experience wouldn't have as many hurdles as a piston R-ATP.

I disagree. Delta B717/A220 FO pays about the same as most RJ operators are paying these days and they do just as many short legs to CHA, TYS, etc.

Most of the guys retiring from the mil have pensions so they aren’t really worried about that first year pay like the younger guys are.

I’ve been wondering the same thing.

All need to remember, without those “regional jets” bringing passengers into the hub, there are no high paying wide body jets going to Europe and Asia. Feed is the only way to make the big jets viable to fly.

Yes, 50 seaters need to go, but 76 seater rj’s full a lot of mainline connecting flights. The first major who can put the regional flying under one seniority list, will clearly have a leg up on the competition. This will solve pilot recruitment issues and allow for a known pilot progression plan.

I'm not certain the current regional pay is sustainable, it may be a bandaid until they can sort out the way forward. If they brought 175's in house at current small jet rates, yeah that would be fine.

It's not just first year... at some point post-retirement wave a new hire might spend years as a small-jet FO. Mil retirement will keep food on the table and a roof over your head but it's not a windfall. At some point those guys will take other jobs instead.

That said, I don't think recruiting mil retirees is a huge driving factor for the airlines, just a consideration.

To point 1 - I get the concept, but dead pax are still dead pax whether it’s a 145, Q400, 797, A360, or what have you. Thankfully we haven’t endured that since 2009. Fingers crossed it keeps up indefinitely.

To your last point - Majors are already adapting. F9 has announced a Rotor transition program. I have a couple CFIs in my transition (initial for them) class at Atlas. They’re sharp kids and it seems the hiring department has been pretty selective and followed them through training/CFI time, along with sending them to a jet transition course.

Obviously we know aptitude is predictive of success based on the MIL experience - guess the jury is out WRT how selective the 2nd tier can be once the big 6 start hiring wet ATPs.

Then again the RJ operators have been taking wet R-ATPs since the mid-2010s and commercial pilots in the decade preceding that.

A220 does not do regional flying at DL. It’s some of the most desirable domestic flying currently with an average 1.8 legs a day. On the FO side it is similar mid seniority to the 7ER and more senior than 737 and 320.

On the latest award, captain went junior on the 7ER and 737 to the 220

subject to change of course