It will be nice if the paradigm changes to "will fly for decent compensation." Who knows if that will come true?

 

It should be one of the most pressing issues for ALPA to take on, yet I be they remain silent. Every time I see the aviation experts on CNN or Fox News talking about the impending pilot shortage, i wonder where ALPA is explaining that it's not a pilot shortage, and it's a shortage of pilots willing to work for pennies.

Sully seems to state this problem when asked about a pilot shortage during his interviews, but for some reason you don't see it when reps from ATP and the airlines are on explaining how hard of a time they're going to have finding applicants.

As everyone on this page has stated, there are thousands and thousands of pilots in the field who are sitting on the sidelines doing other more lucrative work. I work with an hundreds of former pilots, many of whom are on furlough. When the recalls started at the majors and the regionals, can you guess which group of pilots decided to accept the recall, and which ones decided to stay in their current jobs?

 

I'm not quite sure what your point is here but let me assure you that European countries are going through their own challenges with costs. There is a great wave of low-cost carriers in Europe putting huge pressure on the European legacies like Lufthansa and BA and Air France and KLM.

I myself got into flying in Switzerland and came up the ab initio route there.

There's lots of talk there about the same things as in the US. Mins over there are mins and by that I mean that there are people starting Airbus training with as little as 200 hours or in some cases, less than that even.

Even so, there is great pressure on costs and some traditional carriers, Iberia for example, who are starting 'airlines within an airline'. They're starting Iberia Express. Except it's not a traditional "regional" airline like we understand it to be in the US. It's Iberia Airbus aircraft, flown by a new 'B' scale of crew member. That is basically not allowed here in the US due to scope limitations but don't think AA or United wouldn't do it if they could. And I promise that there will be more of it. Another example is my former airline in Switzerland, now owned by Lufthansa, flying domestic routes within Germany. This has, rightfully, caused an uproar at LH amongst the pilots.

There are fewer "regionals" in Europe in the same way we think of them here but there's other fishy stuff that goes on there too. And pretty much everyone these days over there is "Pay to Play". It's rare now that new pilots get full scholarships for flight school like they used to. That's pretty much a thing of the past, even at the legacy Euro carriers. Many, many pilots in Europe have bought their own 737 or A320 type ratings.

As long as people do this, it will continue to bring down the conditions for the pilots. Everyone understandably wants to be competitive.

But how is it really much different from a major US 737 operator which has a de facto 737 type requirement. Not strictly required to get an interview but you have to buy it to go to class. And this is a major airline. Why doesn't anyone raise a stink about this?

 

So what you are telling me is the regionals would go under if they raised their pay? Are you meaning across the board? Or just 1st year FO, or FO pay all together?

 

I just don't think the regional model is profitable anymore. If you raise the labor cost, that just accelerates their decline.

 

Pilot pay is a small fraction of the airfare. It's using regional aircraft that can't handle an alternate and a full boat or there's lot's of bags where pax are offloaded and JS'er are denied. Employ good mechanics/rampers and take care of them and retain them. This way repeat mechanical issues don't pop up delaying flights or aircraft aren't delayed for departure and arrival by poor ground crews.

 

Tell that to all the major airline CEO's that keep cutting the pay of rampers and agents, with every new RFP they put out...

 

So what airlines are looking at people shy on the multi time? I'm right around 30 hours, but have ATP mins.