And almost every TA approved by mainline pilot groups since 1998.

Regional pilot hopes of moving to the majors has been affected by scope as much as the career progression of ml pilots. Every time a TA with looser scope passes the regional pilot groups moan.

Looser scope is not a regional pilot victory, but a win for airline managements.

 

If you have time can you expound on this Grumpy?

 

Life at the regionals can be uncertain, but life at the majors can be a nightmare too. The pilots I flew with at my regional who went to United, American, Frontier and US Airways back in the 2000's can attest to that. They all got benched for years. Some of them got furloughed multiple times...for multiple years, maybe the better part of a decade. That was a major financial and professional blow for them. Now they are in their mid-forties as junior F/O's with virtually no financial assets. Hopefully they can keep stable employment for the next 20 years until they reach 65, but who knows.

 

That wasn't the point I was making. I was saying they accepted a flowback, if the Express had not been there, they would have been furloughed too. Yet, some may claim regional pilots "stole" their jobs.

 

Scope was originally given away by the pilots, THEN the courts. But you have a VERY good point. There ain't no "free market" in the airlines, if the airlines can use bankruptcy as a tool to cut labor costs, while using that saved money to pay bonuses and new aircraft.

 

IMO, a shortage of staffing at the regional, the cost effectiveness of shifting flying to mainline, regionals unable to continue to fly at a loss, etc, will mean a reduction of regional flying.

I think ml pay rates for RJs is a sign they have a back up plan if the regionals can't staff their flying.

 

And yet those that voted for/accepted a flow back did it with the regard that it would NEVER affect them.

Can you expand on this further?

I can't remember all the details on the AA BK. But NWA, USAir, DAL, and UAL all VOTED on scope relaxation during the BK's. Unless I'm wrong, and I could be, but I remember everyone of them being voted on, the court DIDN'T impose them.

Again, I could be wrong. Excluding AA, can you give an example where the court imposed scope relief?

 

I've started offline commuting again for the first time in a long time (yay!), and more often than not I'm in the jumpseat (double yay!) of an RJ. One thing I have noticed while chatting up the crews (thanks for all the rides, BTW!) is that in my unofficial survey probably 90% of the captains have no plans to move on, while 100% of the FOs have all their lines in the water. I'm just curious if that is pretty much true across the entire regional industry. If so, it would seem there is even more to the "Pilot Shortage" story, and the Majors will probably start hiring more and more FOs with little/no TPIC. How would you say the %'s stack up at your regional?

P.S. Please, don't anyone take this the wrong way. There is nothing wrong with making a career out of a regional airline. With all the stagnation of a crappy economy plus Age 65, it just stands to reason that more CAs than ever have likely reached the point where it just doesn't make sense to start over again somewhere else.

 

At Eaglevoy, there are around 300-350 senior CAs who will not be moving on. Right now, that is around 25% of the CAs on the list.
Most of these CAs retire in the next 10 years. About 100, like myself, will be out in 5 years or less.

 

Been at a regional for 10 years and in the left seat for 8. Been trying to quit since 2008. Yay Age 65!

I'm hoping SWA/DL/UAL calls sometime this year.