Street captains?
 

So how long before they regionals are desperate enough to hire left seaters off the street?

There are no (zero, none) RJs that are single pilot operations.

I imagine this would be a consideration due the inability to find new FOs to replace potential upgrades?

I would hope most contracts would have provisions to cover the idea of hiring a direct-entry-Captain when you have plenty of First Officers with the qualifications to upgrade. That is, traditionally the street captain thing is only a fix for having low-time FO's that are prohibited by the FAR's from an upgrade, rather than being a fix for the inability to recruit new FO's.

In short: If your company has a single First Officer than has the FAR minimums for upgrade, "street captains" should be off the table. This is why DEC's have not been historically that common.

With the ATP law and the last 5 years of stagnation, I'd have a hard time believing that ANY regional doesn't have at least a few qualifying FO's.

am I missing the humor/sarcasm/point of this with regards to street CA's? :confused::D

I know of about 700 at Endeavor alone with the mins....

There are also hardly any new-hire FOs who currently (or in the near future) will meet the 1000 hours of air carrier operations requirements for an unrestricted ATP... but I appreciate your attitude.

Sure, but the people who are qualified and experienced, though possibly looking for a change, are unwilling to work for the wages those FOs are willing to.

Packrat didn't understand that the post was about street captains and not about single-pilot operations.

When companies hire street CAs it's usually because none of their FOs meet the minimums to upgrade (1,000 hours 121 time). Since the industry has been completely stagnated for 6 years now and upgrade times are through the roof there are very few FOs at any regional who don't meet the mins to upgrade. Why would any company with a 6+ year upgrade time need to hire a street captain?

With the new 1500hr rule. I would imagine that all current FO's are eligible to be Captains thereby making the term "Street Captain" obsolete. Unless you can think of some weird reason why they would bypass an already employed FO?

Not completely true. You still need 1000 hours 135 PIC or 121 SIC to be eligible to upgrade to Captain. Plus, many airlines have minimums that exceed those requirements as well. I think the only companies that would face a pinch are those that are either having a hard time recruiting FOs thereby not allowing upgrades or those that have less than 2 year upgrade times right now. Nothing time can't fix.