Attention Regional Pilots
12-20-2011 | 06:23 AM
#11
Gets Weekends Off
Joined: Mar 2008
Posts: 1,011
Likes: 0
From: Assistant Greens Keeper
This PNCL business simply highlights how the regional industry is DESIGNED to work. The 9E pilot group collectively pulls themselves out of the gutter to achieve a MODEST increase in compensation and a year later they are facing chapter 11.
Nobody is ever going to get ahead in the regionals...hell, they don't even want you to have a decent middle-class lifestyle. At age 40 when you have a mortgage, two cars, and two kids take a look around you...if more than ten percent of your fellow pilots at your regional look like you then ALL of you are living on borrowed time.
If too many people at your regional are making more than $25K they are going to either file BK or shift the flying to a younger crowd in the long run. There's no future at a regional unless 90% of your peers move on. They can afford a few six-figure grey beards...they need them to fill the training and management ranks, as well as to keep the young bucks under control.
Nobody is ever going to get ahead in the regionals...hell, they don't even want you to have a decent middle-class lifestyle. At age 40 when you have a mortgage, two cars, and two kids take a look around you...if more than ten percent of your fellow pilots at your regional look like you then ALL of you are living on borrowed time.
If too many people at your regional are making more than $25K they are going to either file BK or shift the flying to a younger crowd in the long run. There's no future at a regional unless 90% of your peers move on. They can afford a few six-figure grey beards...they need them to fill the training and management ranks, as well as to keep the young bucks under control.
12-20-2011 | 06:25 AM
#12
Gets Weekends Off
Joined: Apr 2008
Posts: 193
Likes: 0
Education to the younger crowd about the reality of a pilot's lifestyle may deter some future regional pilots.
Since ALPA seems to care only about 747 CAs, they would be a bad spokesperson. That would be like having regional management sell the dream of being a pilot and making six figures.
Turn off the faucet to stop the flow of young pilots into this industry, like applying a tourniquet to a wound, we need to stop the bleeding. Only then will we become more valuable to our employers.
We can then negotiate what we are worth, raise the bar for the industry and continue to educate future pilots on what could happen in the future if we sell ourselves for less.
Bring flying back to mainline.
Work for terrible wages, negotiate for years, get a small increase and then have it taken away from you in bankruptcy court is the cycle this industry seems to have been in for quite some time.
Since ALPA seems to care only about 747 CAs, they would be a bad spokesperson. That would be like having regional management sell the dream of being a pilot and making six figures.
Turn off the faucet to stop the flow of young pilots into this industry, like applying a tourniquet to a wound, we need to stop the bleeding. Only then will we become more valuable to our employers.
We can then negotiate what we are worth, raise the bar for the industry and continue to educate future pilots on what could happen in the future if we sell ourselves for less.
Bring flying back to mainline.
Work for terrible wages, negotiate for years, get a small increase and then have it taken away from you in bankruptcy court is the cycle this industry seems to have been in for quite some time.
12-20-2011 | 10:18 AM
#13
Banned
Joined: Jul 2011
Posts: 175
Likes: 0
Education to the younger crowd about the reality of a pilot's lifestyle may deter some future regional pilots.
Since ALPA seems to care only about 747 CAs, they would be a bad spokesperson. That would be like having regional management sell the dream of being a pilot and making six figures.
Turn off the faucet to stop the flow of young pilots into this industry, like applying a tourniquet to a wound, we need to stop the bleeding. Only then will we become more valuable to our employers.
We can then negotiate what we are worth, raise the bar for the industry and continue to educate future pilots on what could happen in the future if we sell ourselves for less.
Bring flying back to mainline.
Work for terrible wages, negotiate for years, get a small increase and then have it taken away from you in bankruptcy court is the cycle this industry seems to have been in for quite some time.
Since ALPA seems to care only about 747 CAs, they would be a bad spokesperson. That would be like having regional management sell the dream of being a pilot and making six figures.
Turn off the faucet to stop the flow of young pilots into this industry, like applying a tourniquet to a wound, we need to stop the bleeding. Only then will we become more valuable to our employers.
We can then negotiate what we are worth, raise the bar for the industry and continue to educate future pilots on what could happen in the future if we sell ourselves for less.
Bring flying back to mainline.
Work for terrible wages, negotiate for years, get a small increase and then have it taken away from you in bankruptcy court is the cycle this industry seems to have been in for quite some time.
Obviously, you didn't listen to your own advice.
12-20-2011 | 10:31 AM
#14
Gets Weekends Off
Joined: Apr 2008
Posts: 193
Likes: 0
Education to the younger crowd about the reality of a pilot's lifestyle may deter some future regional pilots.
Since ALPA seems to care only about 747 CAs, they would be a bad spokesperson. That would be like having regional management sell the dream of being a pilot and making six figures.
Turn off the faucet to stop the flow of young pilots into this industry, like applying a tourniquet to a wound, we need to stop the bleeding. Only then will we become more valuable to our employers.
We can then negotiate what we are worth, raise the bar for the industry and continue to educate future pilots on what could happen in the future if we sell ourselves for less.
Bring flying back to mainline.
Work for terrible wages, negotiate for years, get a small increase and then have it taken away from you in bankruptcy court is the cycle this industry seems to have been in for quite some time.
Since ALPA seems to care only about 747 CAs, they would be a bad spokesperson. That would be like having regional management sell the dream of being a pilot and making six figures.
Turn off the faucet to stop the flow of young pilots into this industry, like applying a tourniquet to a wound, we need to stop the bleeding. Only then will we become more valuable to our employers.
We can then negotiate what we are worth, raise the bar for the industry and continue to educate future pilots on what could happen in the future if we sell ourselves for less.
Bring flying back to mainline.
Work for terrible wages, negotiate for years, get a small increase and then have it taken away from you in bankruptcy court is the cycle this industry seems to have been in for quite some time.
Obviously, you didn't listen to your own advice.
12-20-2011 | 10:53 AM
#15
Banned
Joined: Jul 2011
Posts: 175
Likes: 0
I'm not denying it. I was sold on a dream that a regional was a stepping stone. That I would be in & out within 5 yrs., not a topped out 6 yr. regional FO working for a company that does not respect its employees. I fell for the trap like everyone else. All I can do is help to change the status quo.
You can seek employment in another profession. If enough of you did that, that would change the status quo. But let me guess, you love to fly and even though you get treated and paid like crap, you can't see yourself doing anything else.
That's the true problem here. You guys "love" flying so much, that no matter how bad they treat you, you keep coming back for more. Management has ZERO incentive to pay and treat you guys better because they know that there will always been an endless supply of new kids and mid life crisis career changers who wil keep the pipeline fully stocked with fresh fodder.
12-20-2011 | 11:26 AM
#16
Gets Weekends Off
Joined: Apr 2008
Posts: 193
Likes: 0
I'm not denying it. I was sold on a dream that a regional was a stepping stone. That I would be in & out within 5 yrs., not a topped out 6 yr. regional FO working for a company that does not respect its employees. I fell for the trap like everyone else. All I can do is help to change the status quo.
You can seek employment in another profession. If enough of you did that, that would change the status quo. But let me guess, you love to fly and even though you get treated and paid like crap, you can't see yourself doing anything else.
That's the true problem here. You guys "love" flying so much, that no matter how bad they treat you, you keep coming back for more. Management has ZERO incentive to pay and treat you guys better because they know that there will always been an endless supply of new kids and mid life crisis career changers who wil keep the pipeline fully stocked with fresh fodder.
12-20-2011 | 11:42 AM
#17
Banned
Joined: Jul 2011
Posts: 175
Likes: 0
True for some. I would be content flying an ultralight. But yes, I NEED to fly. It is what I love to do. I don't need to do it professionally though. Maybe some do, and that IS a problem if they do it for free. If I wasn't told long ago pilots make $300K/yr and can only work 80 hrs a month I may have chosen something else. I was fed with a false reality. I just want to educate kids and aviation enthusiasts what the real story is before they sign that training loan.
Our Captains can easily make $300K/yr and most fly far less thank 80 hrs a month.
12-20-2011 | 11:48 AM
#18
Line Holder
Joined: May 2009
Posts: 79
Likes: 0
There ARE options. Overseas carriers are offering 150-180k per annum. Many complaining pilots with long commutes, lousy QOL, just waiting for the Great Mainline Job, may get hired and see that Great Mainline company go bankrupt a few years later. Why wait for speculative goodies, when they are available now...good pay, no commuting, good travel benefits, free lodging, much better schools available than public US schools, no tax on the first 85k of wages, etc etc. What's the attraction of Regional flying here over what's available overseas? I guess it's not as bad here as people make out. Sam
12-20-2011 | 12:00 PM
#19
Line Holder
Joined: May 2010
Posts: 58
Likes: 0
There ARE options. Overseas carriers are offering 150-180k per annum. Many complaining pilots with long commutes, lousy QOL, just waiting for the Great Mainline Job, may get hired and see that Great Mainline company go bankrupt a few years later. Why wait for speculative goodies, when they are available now...good pay, no commuting, good travel benefits, free lodging, much better schools available than public US schools, no tax on the first 85k of wages, etc etc. What's the attraction of Regional flying here over what's available overseas? I guess it's not as bad here as people make out. Sam
12-20-2011 | 02:46 PM
#20
Prime Minister/Moderator
Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 44,882
Likes: 682
From: Engines Turn or People Swim
There ARE options. Overseas carriers are offering 150-180k per annum. Many complaining pilots with long commutes, lousy QOL, just waiting for the Great Mainline Job, may get hired and see that Great Mainline company go bankrupt a few years later. Why wait for speculative goodies, when they are available now...good pay, no commuting, good travel benefits, free lodging, much better schools available than public US schools, no tax on the first 85k of wages, etc etc. What's the attraction of Regional flying here over what's available overseas? I guess it's not as bad here as people make out. Sam
Besides, my family is all here in the states. If wanted to ho myself out overseas I'd take a job with Xe or whatever they call themselves this week. They pay $1,000... per day.
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