I seldom ever reply to threads....but I found this one vastly more interesting than most. I imagine that every pilot has thought about the title of this thread and come to an individual conclusion as to what the cause is of our expendability and what the solution is.

As far as the cause....I agree with most posts here that sight supply and demand as the culprit. Has anyone heard in the last ten years of a "pilot shortage"? Doesn't it seem like that never really happens? My guess is that due to the way the system is set up....there will never be a pilot shortage.

1) Just merge two carriers....Instant pilot surplus.

2) Suffer terror attacks such as those on 9-11.

3) Raise the retirement age from 60 to 65.....boom, all hiring stops.

4) Have a global economic recession....fewer passengers...fewer pilots needed.

5) Lower the standards. Instead of hiring minimums being 3000TT 1000ME, just hire with Commercial Instrument Multi Certificate.

6) OR unlike EVERY other democracy in the world....don't require citizenship for pilot employment. I mean no disrespect, but the USA truly is the land of opportunity in the field of Aviation. All you need is a Green Card. Try applying to Alitalia, Air Canada, Brittish Airways, Quantas, etc. I have looked at all of these carriers websites over the years....and they all require citizenship. Could you imagine if to hold an ATP certificate you had to be a US citizen? You do in every other Democracy.

7) Lastly, when it looks like all else has failed...and there still will be a slight shortage of pilots in the U.S. All you need to do is advertise and market flight ratings schools. I understand that the DeltaConnectionAcademy (formerly ComairAcademy) was created for exactly this purpose. With enough advertising and publishing of information about 777 jobs at Delta...you can actually convince people to pay for all their ratings, work for nothing to teach others to get their ratings and then (at the time) Pay for training at Comair.....to ultimatlely make very little $.

So now that we can identify many (but not all) of the causes....What would be a logical fix to being on the backside of the supply/demand power curve?

The answers are fairly simple in principle, difficult to implement...and considered controversial to many pilots and typically get blood boiling. I think we need to get passed that and come to a complete understanding of what pilot expectations are for their profession.

I hear some pilots make comparisons of professional pilots to other professions such as Doctors, Lawyers, Accountants, etc. Other pilots I hear make comparisons to heavy equipent opperators such as Crane opperators or Long Shoreman. Some consider us educated white collar workers while others believe we are simply blue coller trade unionists with no education requirements. A collective decision needs to be made....because we sit somewhere in the middle...and that is the worst place to be.

If we would like to be white collar professionals and include doctors and lawyers among our peer group...then we need to emulate these professions. Doctors and lawyers have massive educational requirements while to be a pilot in the U.S. typically requires a GED (highschool equivalency). How many pilots at Regional Airlines have a bachelors degree? I might guess half. When we require education for admission into the profession....less people will be capable or willing to comply and simply find other work. This will decrease Supply therefore sending pay and job security higher. No other profession mentioned suffers the job loss pilots do.....simply becuase the standards for those professions are high enough to make membership in the club fairly exclusive. Airline pilot membership is not exclusive at all. Yes there are both highschool and college dropouts among us yet all that matters is the seniority number. I was recently told by a very senior captian that a bachelors degree had been a requirement to obtain an ATP (not just be 23 years of age and be of good moral character). This requirement was dropped however (and you guessed it) because the airline managment lobbyists felt that there were too few pilots and the supply needed to be increased. I would also like to point out that to be a pilot in the military you first must have a bachelors..and pilot training is an intense Masters Degree type of program. I do realize there are a few branches that use Warrent Officers to fly helicopters....but on the whole, Military pilots are VERY well educated.

On the other hand, if we would like to be blue collar trade unionists..... we are doing it all wrong. Education is typically a non-factor when being a true trade unionist...but the union structure is vastly different. Does the UAW or West Coast Longshoreman have other "portfolio carriers" voting in lesser CBA's in attempt to acquire more work? Simply....No.
What airline management has succussfully achieved is a divided Union (kind of an oxy-moron right?). With a large number of SEPARATE unions bidding for work...the whole purpose of a union is nearly nullified.

What we are left with unfortunately are Individual Airline Seniority List Ponzi Schemes. Consider American Eagle, Comair, or any other Regional Airline that has been around a long time. Pretty expensive place huh? Lots of senior people at the top of the pay scales. Then we look at a place like Compass or GoJet which has been around only three years. So nobody there is getting paid more than third year captains pay.....very cheap labor. The Airline Managments have engineered this so that they dont have to live with high costs.

The only reason a pilot can top out on a pay scale is because that individual has been there for a good length of time, and there are $20 per hour First officers getting hired at the bottom of the pyramid supporting the top pyramid pay. Airline management simply puts out an RFP and finds a cheaper carrier to fly the same routes and quicky furloughs the old regional airline into oblivion. I believe that Comair is at the end of the Ponzy/Pyramid sequence. The top of the pyramid is too heavy.

In a true trade union atmosphere, this would never become an issue because all pilots would be at the same union and there would be no undercutting. Also, the process of RFP's and bidding for flying would never have been crafted.

I doubt seriously that things will change. Airline management has what they want at the regionals...and they work hard each day to push this system higher into the land of the Majors (Just look at the CRJ-90 or EMB-190.....does this really look like "regional" equipement?). Pilots seem to consistently be thier own worst enemy mostly due to the fact that we are neither educated professionals nor trade unionists, but something undefined inbetween.

I would recomend that our unions no longer push for improvements contractually. This simply perpetuates the game as it currently stands. I would prefer to alter the game itself by seeing a massive, ground-up movement, spearheaded by our unions to change the FAR's.

I am not just talking about changes to the Rest requirements (although isn't that long overdue?). I am talking about making significant changes to forever alter where pilots sit on the Supply/Demand power curve.

1) Both pilots operating 121 should be required to have ATP's and be type rated in the equipement. The checkride is identical for a First Officer...why not type him? And scrap this SIC type rating thing. That is garbage.

2) ADD to the ATP requirements. Although being 23 and of good moral character is impressive.....I think it would be more impressive if to obtain a U.S. ATP you were required to be a U.S. Citizen and have a bachelors degree from an accredited college or university.

Just like when the regs changed for the High-Performace/Complex signoff. If you already have an ATP....you are grandfathered in with no effect on you. These changes would be forward looking. They would raise the bar for future applicants and work to constrict membership into the club.

I would also like to see more of a real union materialize in the future that more closely resembles that of the West Coast Long Shoreman. I think that the biggest hinderence is the Railway Labor Act.

BUT with Obama in office and Democrats holding a majority in Congress....NOW may be the only time (during our lifetimes) that we have to change things. To score a victory over Airline Management Lobbyists....All Airline unions need to be organizing and mobilizing a massive effert to have every airline pilot writing both thier Senators and Congressman every single day to change what I have mentioned above. If our reps get 300,000 letters and emails a day from evey pilot in America.....Change can be forced. And then we wouldn't have to be... SO EXPENDABLE.

 

Great summary!

Wrong on one count, when you say that citizenship is required at overseas carriers. Nope, not the case. You need LEGAL residency and being able to work in that country. In other words, we have the same requirements here. You probably know it better as someone who has a "green card."

That's all that's required even overseas at the carriers you mention, and how you get it is the same as it is here - legally immigrate to that country.

Many foreign airlines in Asia will sponsor you so you can meet the legal requirements to work there. European, Australian and Canadian carriers generally won't (RyanAir and WizzAir being exceptions)... and neither will the US carriers. You need to meet legal residence requirements.

 

I read through many responses and for the most part, this is old news. But I have a suggestion as to how to fix the problem. In the medical field, all doctors and nurses must be certified by an "outside" organization before they get hired. For doctors, that certification comes from the AMA. For Nurse Anesthetists, that certification comes from the AANA. In either/any case, this requirement for certification is actually a method for controlling demand. Supply and Demand have been mentioned in this string. With a low supply relative to the demand given, prices (read: salaries) will always go up. The AMA restricts the supply of doctors through it's certification process. Imagine if ALPA, or some other organization, "certified" pilots as being ready and able to be airline pilots, rather than everyone getting their Commercial, multi, instrument from Joe's Pilot School, etc - no insult intended to the graduates of Joe's Pilot School. The point is that ALPA, or some similar certifying body, takes control of the supply portion of the system and thereby takes control of the salary variations.
At the end of the day, an airline is going to do exactly what every business does: maximize profits. Pilots are less of a prisoner to the airline than they are to the contract their union negotiates.
A couple of replies mention standing together. Look to the union, not the company for that. Hold the union responsible, not the company. The company is acting in its own best interests. Don't blame them. Hold the union accountable and start thinking outside of the box.
A couple of suggestions:
- A certifying body as already mentioned
- A national seniority list where Captains don't lose seniority when switching airlines. Why should anyone have to go back to being an FO just because they switch airlines?
- Separate the lobbying function of the union from the labor portion...they aren't mutually supportive, even though they may seem to be.

I've done many things in my life, and being an airline pilot is the weirdest job - as well as most rewarding - I've ever had. It is up to us to change it. Someone pointed out that regional pilots now outnumber mainline. I don't know if that is true, but it suggests to me that regional pilots should have a lot of clout when vote time comes around . Take advantage of it. Imagine a regional captain running ALPA.