Who is going to be the first Regional Airline to sign a real contract with real pay now that more than 50% of all domestic flying is not done by the majors anymore? Will the regionals keep comparing each others contract and pay or will one of them man up and demand A LOT more money or else let the airline fold?

 

Why would they pay any more money when classes are full every time they advertise for pilots? They should pay less.

What's to "man up"? Give away money? No, they're not going to do that. Airlines aren't going to fold because they paid the pilots too little.

Pilots get paid too little because they accept too little. There are too many pilots. While that may not be the case at some point in the future, as soon as there was any shortage of cheap pilots, they could double the pay (that won't happen) and it would still be cheap to hire $35,000/yr pilots instead of $17,500/yr.

You'd have guys frothing at the mouth to get out of their C172 CFI job (after the 1500 hours, of course) to sign up.

I'm moving this to the hangar talk forum.

Tony

 

I bet we see panic hiring before the 1500 increase prior to any bump in pay...

 

"Pilots get paid too little because they accept too little."

Wrong.

If that were true Spirit, JetBlue, Allegiant, and Hawaiian would not have gotten a raise. Why didn't the airline just say no and replace them? The regionals need to stand ground and it needs to happen now. Team up with the majors and demand tighter scope so there can be leverage for more money.

Pay was low because everyone thought they were moving on. Well for many the regional level is a career. Pilots need to fight for proper pay right now.

 

They thought they were moving on... so they accepted $17,500 a year... like I did.

What you think you need, or don't need to do, to increase pay is fine. But the facts remain. Pilots willingly accept poor pay. It's not a new experience. There's just a lot more of it because the low end of the industry, the "regional" contract airlines, are HUGE compared to 20 years ago, or even 10 years ago.

 

Tony,

From what I know of your background you were at Skywest before you went to Lagos. Neither outfit have a union to my knowledge, so I won't hold against you the fact that you don't seem to understand that we as pilots get paid what we negotiate in our contracts. Historically speaking, we've always negotiated a low first year pay in favor of higher wages for the middle of the road guys, and I don't agree with it. Therein the problem, none of us had the opportunity to start a regional gig with high pay, because like unicorns and Santa Claus, they don't exist. So it's up to us now to negotiate good rates across the board.

To the OP,

I believe Republic has a real opportunity in their hands, and could be the first. I'm not holding my breath, but they do have a great opportunity in their hands, and the rest of the industry will negotiate based on their outcome.

goaround

 

I bet you're right. They'll get as many cheap pilots as they can, because once 1500 takes effect, they will have a tough time filling up classes and pay has got to start increasing.

I read recently that Embraer is developing an airliner they hope will be SINGLE Pilot, released around 2025....Wouldn't that be a kick in the ass.

 

As mentioned above a huge airline like Republic, could, and should be the first.

A lot on the line if it happened there.

 

GLA... They can only go up from where pay is now

 

Funny cause I made a bet with guys in my newhire class at Trans States back in 1999 that by the time we retire, 2030 in my case, we will see Single Pilot Airliners...