The earnings report not being even worse that it was is the only thing that's surprising here. The total penalties that Republic has to pay each time they cancel a flight for lack of crew has to be through the roof. The Q400 controllable completion factor recently has been just abysmal.

 

It's a messed up Racket isn't it?

 

RAH pilots wouldn't be fed up if they had a guaranteed no-interview flow to mainline.

 

You might be able to staff some of it with the Republic pilots, but most of them won't start over and only 50% of the jobs will be captain spots.[/QUOTE]

Let's hope so. That's the only way they will sweeten the contracts awarded...if they are forced to because pilots are unwilling to start over somewhere else. I don't have much faith in that. 90% of my classmates at AWAC were former Comair pilots.

 

Mainline won't do that! They don't need pilots bad enough! They see how we have scattered to the next Regional airline with quick movement in the past. It costs them less money to award the flying to the next lowest bidder.

 

The problem with doing this in the current market is the regionals don't compensate their pilots enough to have a surplus of willing pilots to work for them.

If Republic shuts down, where will the pilots have to come from? Republic. So lets say 100% of those pilots go replace themselves at the new carrier that was awarded the flying. How to you account for the months to a year that the planes aren't flying? How do you entice the pilots to work for Longevity year 1 and only 50% of the jobs are captain spots.

Republic management wants to get away with only paying new pilots more to attract them. The Republic pilots are saying no and rightfully so.

The only solution here is Republic to offer the Endeavor style bonus for all, or fold. Mainline will have to pay Republic more to do this, but maybe the mainline partners want out of their Republic contract. Could be an easy and cheaper way for the mainline airlines to do this.

Either way, the airline staffing the flying will have to compensate their pilots a lot more than the current Republic Airways does. If no one does, they will just have the same problems Republic is having.

 

That's all true but it seems to work every time. The next lowest bidder will have to bid enough to make money and pay people enough to attract them. It won't happen overnight. That's the biggest problem. It will be a slow death and a quiet race to the next contractor who promises quick upgrades or fake flows.

 

PSA Brownstreak types will gladly take another concessionary contract for some of that widebody regional flying.. Everyone will be tripping over each other to get there for the instant upgrades too. Including furloughed RAH pilots. Happened before and it will happen again. It's not like all the Comair guys or Envoy people who had their future pulled out from under them just quit the industry. Maybe 2% do. The majority flocked to the bottomfeeders hiring. Senior Comair pilots were packing Gojet classes even though they were the pariah of the industry.

This is why we are all screwed in this industry.

 

What can you do as a pilot? You have to find work, how can you blame an individual pilot for trying to stay employed? If there were more national unity among pilots this wouldn't be an issue.

Is anyone surprised that Republic has a high probability to be the first Regional to face serious issue in this changing environment?

http://www.airlinepilotforums.com/re...ml#post1691451

Hopefully all the pilots there are able to land on their feet and nothing comes out of this news but I still think that it is going to be a shaky decade for all regionals.

 

It's been shaky for Regional Pilots for a long time. I don't think most can make it thru this sector of the business without a downgrade, furlough or sideways reboot before making it to the big leagues. It takes luck, timing and a lot of ass-kissing!