In order to get that, the regional airline needs to get a bigger pot of money from their major airline partner. Maybe it will in fact come to this if nobody is willing to sit in the seat and fly the airplane for what is being offered.

But if pay gets too big, the regional airline would not have any reason to exist as its sole purpose is to be a B scale for its parent major airline.

That's all a regional airline is, a big fat B scale. I think when you look at like this the solution becomes crystal clear.

tom1011 - you hit it on the head.

if they don't fly for cheap mainline does not need them.

Problem is remember Independence Air.

FFD can still be cheap, just not as cheap. Having a contractor still allows you a lot of flexibility. The whipsaw allure is still too great. The majors will go kicking and screaming, but they may just pay more in order not to have to assume so many sunk costs and liability. Also, they can arrange to make the feeders into the "internship" to mainline in order to extend the regional model as long as possible--just like Delta is trying with Endeavor.

regional pilot pay to military pay is apples and oranges. it's not even close to remotely the same.

What is this "needs to" stuff you're talking about? You're missing the context. The 2LT succeeded at scoring himself a seat in the ab initio beauty pageant. The civilian-only regional FO guy didn't. It is what it is. And that's the point. That's simple barriers to entry yielding a raise in pay; something military pilots enjoy and civilian regional FOs do not.

You want to give up the baby so that everybody can fulfill their dream whilst getting paid in landings and logbook flight time? Go right ahead. But that won't help the economic situation of regional FOs too thick to recognize when they're supposed to quit the industry for their own economic good. They'll never make a living wage. Somebody has to get shorted a musical chair for another to make a competitive wage in a Country of declining median wage and overwhelming labor surplus in most skilled and unskilled vocations; nevermind an industry with a labor pool so petulantly price-inelastic it makes American Idol walk-in audition applicants look 'rational' by comparison.

Welcome to the Hunger Games. The natural outcome should be the consolidation of these regional jobs for the sustainment of the ones left. That's a reduction in jobs, for the mathematically challenged. This "raise regional FO pay" is a pipedream with no leverage.The economy never needed 10,000 RJ jobs.

Well written, heavy. Hope u did not copyright the American Idol line i am going to use it ;)

^^^^ Spot on !

I don't understand why it's so difficult for pilots to understand this.

I could quote most of the posters on this thread saying the same thing (except for hindsight who seems to get it)... There is a common theme here that goes pretty much like this....

Why can't airline pilots understand the simple concept that they aren't entitled to anything. As long as they allow management and the unions to control pay instead of them it will keep getting lower.

And the fact that the only reason a low time pilot can even get an airline job is because the pay is so low few others want it.

Agree 100% with you... I made a comment about what it should be raised to if they want to attract more qualified candidates. I know they'll still find pilots willing to accept low wages and there in itself lies the problem. I chose to be a reserve bum instead to actually make a living after several years of beating up patterns as a CFI. I want to fly 121 ops but as long as pay sucks I'm much better off where I am. The point I am arguing is if regionals and others are claiming raising pay wont attract more qualified pilots they are wrong.

That's exactly how it should be. Cap the pilot pay at 10 years max. Maybe even start reducing it after 10 years longevity to encourage the deadwood to move on. A 10 year RJ pilot should be capped at 65k max with FO's starting at around 40k then capped at around 50k. A regional is not meant to be a career. Anyone that can't cut it after a certain amount of time should be shown the door.:D