Boy, usually I'm an optimist, but good luck finding 850 pilots willing to go to the bottom of a massive list for poverty wages. Are there really that many out there ready to be hired?

Good luck. Eagle said a similar thing and we had a total of I think 5 guys in the latest new hire class.

This is 2012, things have changed since fuel was relatively lower and pilots were at a premium, airlines wanted the RJ to increase frequency. The industry has consolidated and is looking at capacity control. Airlines are reducing frequency and flying larger aircraft. AA has been outsourcing ground ops at many stations and has a huge order of airbus 319's to replace the MD80's. It would be more expensive to replace the MD80's with 76 seaters than it will be with 319's! The RJ are not economical, the 50 are the worse but the 76 seaters are not far behind, they just have a few more seats to spread the fuel but when you consider the operating cost mainly fuel of an E175 or CRJ900 is not that much less than an Airbus 319 that holds almost double the amount of people. Regional pilots working for peanuts won't come close to make up the difference.

I hope you're right and that those Airbii don't end up at RAH or any other regional. However, history does not support your argument.

I'd be willing to bet that when you remove labor costs, flying 2 E75s costs just about the same as flying one S80 over the same stage length. About the same number of seats, both premium and economy. Frequency is a bonus.

Does anyone know what certificates the new hires are being put into in the latest classes? Will Chautauqua keep getting classes?

The company is living in a dream world. Almost every class coming through shows up less than half full. Then a good portion are quitting before finishing. Of the 125 the company claims to have set to go this year, maybe 40 will make it to the line. There is absolutely no chance they'll find 700+ pilots next year considering everyone is looking for the same. They want to give an industry bottom contract and still expect to attract pilots over skywest? Absolute fantasy world bb lives in.

BB, we know this is you......

FALSE

Example 1.....The *****d out Delta contract

First half of this paragraph is completely false. Having spent most of the last few months in the training center only one class was even remotely close to being half empty. Everything else was full/close to full. I think 6 people left training before finishing and almost all of them were told resign or fail.

Not much wrong with the second half though. If they think we're going to compete, there'd better be a new contract.

I think the graduating classes for riddle, und and the other "famous" aviation universities can more than cover that amount.