Delta doesn't pay regional wages. They pay a regional airline a fee for every departure. It's a fixed price, hence the low pay required for regionals to make a profit. They undercut each other to get the contract, then cut every corner to turn a profit on that fixed price.

Delta has come to the realization that replacing 5-7 RJ flights that are unreliable and hated by customers, with 2-3 full 717's is much more reliable and profitable. United is right behind, we're flying 737s and 320's into more and more places that were RJ legs, just with less frequency. We've also announced we're cutting 50 seat RJ capacity by almost 50%.

 

They're not stupid, not exactly, although airline managers on average are somewhat incompetent business people compared to other industries I've worked in.

But they are immensely self-serving, often self-destructively so...the Street encourages and rewards that, and modern America condones and accepts it as the natural course of things.

 

Not sure why the negativity. I was just throwing some ideas out there. If you read my discussion with others back and forth we went into detail about the realization of why we can't just bump ticket prices up $10 a pop. I was trying to throw an interesting angle in here. All these discussions we are having are interesting, and even if they're merely just silly ideas, it's an interesting discussion with room for improvement.

 

What's wrong with you people? This is one big circle jerk! Why would anyone pay a contractor more if there is always another contractor that will do it for less?

The really pathetic sad part of it all is most of the contractors that step all over each other's necks to win a bid belong to the same pathetic wanna-be union. It's not a union without unity and there is not a hint of unity in this business! ALPA is just another line item on the deduction side of my paycheck. We might as well each have our own in house unions. The results would be the same and we probably wouldn't even pay as much in dues.

What we all should be debating is why do we still allow ALPA to keep taking our money?

 

Fine... Double perdiem then. It's tax free.

 

You're not factoring in that if they raise tickets by $5 per person, greedy execs are going to want $4.90 of it for their hefty bonuses.

 

This has all been thought of before. You are worth what you negotiate. In the case of the regionals, they are shrinking. There is not enough flying to go around. Management is using this as leverage to give the flying to the lowest bidder. In a few years, the regionals will face a pilot shortage. Unfortunately, the pilots doing the underbidding are signing long term contracts therefore there will be no negotiations when pilots have thr leverage. It's as simple as not taking a job at a regional if you want to make money. It's also as simple as not signing concessions. We did this to ourselves. We have no one to blame but ourselves. Regional pilots deserve to get paid as little as they do.

 

I don't think regionals did it to themselves. RLA limits our ability to strike. Majors slapped us by giving up scope along with ALPA and APA not enforcing all hiring from the regionals after scope was relaxed. (Yes there are many qualified military and non-military pilots but where would you say the true bottom of the industry is? Not at mainline.) Many pilots although qualified were/are allowed to cut in line and hired directly into mainline jobs which further stagnates career progression at the regionals. Then factor in 9-11, downsizing and age increase to 65. The system is most broken at the regional level and not much will ever change because the emphasis is at mainline.

 

OK, at some point I believe we have forgotten we live in a capitalistic society... Regional pay will not be much higher anytime soon. Why would it be? There are too many pilots willing to work for what the regionals are paying, because there is the hope of making it to mainline. It's simple economics. Most of the people on this forum (and hopefully me soon as well) are flying in the regionals and knew what the pay was before accepting the job offer. Why? Because mainline carriers pay a ton more!

No matter how many regionals vote NO, there will always be another carrier (even a new one) that will fly for these wages. To be perfectly honest, do you really think that the mainlines couldn't find a whole new set of pilots willing to work for $150k/year. Be serious... Its a losing proposition that started way before most of us even started thinking of flying commercially.

The bottom line is that there are 12,000 pilots willing to work for regional pay right now and there always will be as long as the mainlines are paying so much more. Regionals will never be unified and even if they were, it would be incentive for someone to establish a new regional with lower wages.

There is nothing wrong with making the regionals a career, but realize there is never going to be an incentive for the mainlines to pay more. The die is cast.

 

Regional airlines earn revenue from departure, completion, and block hour fees. The issue isn't raising ticket prices commensurate with staffing needs, most regionals simply don't have that option. Unfortunately, the winning RFP for passenger lift at most majors is dependent upon the contract carrier with the lowest bid.

You can attempt to hold the line all you want, but basic business and economic realities will generally hold that those contract carriers with the highest operating costs (of which labor is a substantial proportion) will lose out on a proportional amount of contract flying awarded. Until this paradigm is substantially altered at the major level, I don't think we'll see compensation substantially improved at regional airlines.

My personal opinion is that contract flying will be significantly reduced, if not eliminated entirely within the next decade.

Just my $0.02.