Originally Posted by groovinaviator

I never said Pinnacle... are they bottom of the barrel? Interesting.I have quite a few friends from college at TSA and although I don't agree with where they went to work I am by no means better than them. Some have a reason they need to be there, but let's face it most of us (not all) entry level pilots are young and single and could go wherever we wanted. Anyway, My point is that the less money someone is willing to work for the less money we will all make. My company formerly had bases in the midwest, but now we do not and I get paid much less money than I would have because a second rate company that doesn't pay their pilots crap undercut us. I suppose those pay cuts which we had to take to stay afloat helped inch us along in the race to the bottom... Glad we are not winning that race.

How does going to a company like MESA, TSA, and apparently Pinnacle (among others I'm sure) help anyone but yourself. I suppose that in the end everyone is only looking out for #1 anyway.

Same old story... That is part of (dis)honest future.
This has been argued so many times before. There is nothing new from either side to be said.

Didn't mean to sound arrogant... I by no means think i am better than anyone else. I however do think I did my part (through research) to get a job that wasn't screwing over other entry level pilots... although it could be argued I am screwing the guys at the majors... the argument could go on forever.


And no... I don't plan on being at AWAC forever, but i do no if there is another down turn in hiring I will have made the right decision. By the way... don't get caught up on upgrade times. They can (and do) change overnight.

Originally Posted by groovinaviator

I could even see them hiring foreigners when the wage gets too low for even the bottom of the barrel guys (MESA and TSA types) to accept.

I hope for the best though. I love my job (when the door is closed).

Originally Posted by Pokerpilot

...Leaving SkyWest, ExpressJet and AWAC for that matter, to be the WORLD GREATEST and you guys will change the economy and reform the aviation industry. Ha ha ha Good Luck

Originally Posted by groovinaviator

This is nothing new. If this were truly a customer service industry and not a "please the shareholder" industry it would be better for labor, management and most importantly the customer.

Read the book "Hard Landing"

http://www.amazon.com/Hard-Landing-C.../dp/0812928350

Originally Posted by boilerpilot

Many would argue that you, by not going through the military, took a job that was screwing over way more pilots than the 2000 pilots that have gone to these bottom of the barrel airlines have.

Get off your high horse and realize that most of the guys at majors laugh at most of the bickering that goes on at the regional level. It's a REGIONAL. ALL of your work rules suck, regardless of whether you have a duty rig or not. Somebody took a job, and that's brining down the industry? Give me a break. Entry level aviation jobs have been crappy for almost the entire tenure of the industry, it's just that there aren't 100 different little carriers that fly around Metroliners and J31s anymore, there are 25 that fly slightly larger aircraft. If I may, I'd like to offer you a tip: the fact that there's so much in fighting at the regional level is half of the problem in aviation right now. Who cares that you as an FO are getting $30k as opposed to $20k? You're still accepting a job that works you almost as hard as a real job for what essentially works out to be around $10-$15 an hour (if you spread it out over the hours that you actually work. I can't remember who said it, but the majors are the goal here, people. The quote was "if he gets to the majors before you, he wins, you lose. Period."

Originally Posted by mwa1

the 64K question - when ticket prices go up because costs rise, will the aircraft get larger with less frequency or smaller with the same or lower freq.
It still costs less to send 45 people on an RJ than on an MD80 or the like.

Originally Posted by mwa1

I think you are right about the "distant" future but there are not enough of these to put into the system now. the baby bus (318) would work well and I think it is the only one that could be produced with current production line openings