They killed off Comair because they had a contract with a living wage and work rules. Karma. Hopefully soon the Comair contract will be the base from which the airlines improve upon.

+1. I already paid my dues at a regional. I won't do my "apprenticeship" all over again.

I fly a Metroliner single pilot across the US. I would love to sit in a shiny jet, but I will need around 45-50k to start, with the ability to make 60+ my second year, or it isn't worth it. I'll just keep flying around in my junked out turbo prop.

I am in my early 30s with two young kids. I am home every night, fly 300hrs a year and make around 100k a year. I have always dreamed of flying for the airlines, but looking back am so glad I never took the plunge to the regionals. I may be on the slower track to a job at the Majors but I am ok with that. At least I have had a liveable wage for the last 7 years. I hope wages go up, 40k first, 60k second, 80k third year, that is the bare minimum I would accept.

I'm glad all the 135/91 guys are chiming in here... I left the regionals recently after almost 7 years of slugging it out at the bottom ranks at 3 different carriers. Furloughed from 2 and left the last one. It was one of the most miserable periods of my life, but I just kept telling myself to hang on, that it'll get better. I landed a 135 job flying Citations and my QOL and pay almost tripled. I'm once again loving what I do. My worst day here is better than my best day at any of those regionals. There are some things I do miss, mainly the crews, but wouldn't ever go back to those places. I'd stop flying altogether. Not saying I won't ever go back to 121, but if I do it'll never be to another regional.

While supply/demand says pay should rise...

...$40/60/80k for the first three years as a regional jet FO is not a realistic expectation.

And I say that as a guy that has made more in my last 6 years flying Part 91 than if I had stayed at AWAC and upgraded.

I have +5000 hours. I was furloughed 6 years ago from a Regional. Since then, I have been employed flying a bug smasher and making +$60k/year with weekends off.... I do miss the RJ flying but there is no chance I'll go back to a Regional and start all over again at $20k/yr.

In the GAO report, page 32:

"For example, increasing recruiting requires fewer resources than raising wages; further recruitment efforts could also be halted if labor market conditions change, whereas wages, once raised, may not be easily lowered."

Translation: Airline management has zero desire to raise wages.

Page 33:

"Improve wages and fringe benefits. Increasing wages will help increase the number of personnel willing to work in a particular position or occupation. However, employers are reluctant to do this because they may be forced to raise the wages of current employees as well. Further, unlike some other actions, once wages are raised, it is unlikely that they will be reduced later if hiring becomes less difficult."

Translation: Airline management has a solution to this "pilot shortage" but prefers to find cost free way to solve this issue.

Conclusion: Airline management could care less about their pilots. But they want to have their cake, and eat it in their mansions.

It is nice to see the government calling airlines' bluff though.

This new GAO report nails what I have been saying quietly for the last year or so on this forum. And yet, the only gripe I have about the pilot shortage story is how untruthful it is. If you say "we are understaffed" when you actually are not even trying to staff your firm, that's unethical. It's lies and myths. There is nothing unethical about saying, "we are parking airplanes now because the labor rate for the better pilots went up a lot recently, we can't afford them any more and are parking planes to save money, sorry for the inconvenience". But that's not what we hear, not at all.