From the new hires I've seen making it to the line, I'd say the majority are 30+... It isn't uncommon to have a crew with the CA being younger than the FO by a handful of years. Still a few young guys sprinkled in here and there. A lot of guys gave up on the industry after 9/11 and are only now thinking of jumping back in.

 

It looks like my class may have been unique; we had approximately 65 in November, about 4 of those were ladies. 80% of the class came from flight instructing, a few prior 121 and a few others from the etc. jobs. About 70% of the class was under 30.

 

If I may ask, in exactly what ways does more accents in new-hire classes cause you to ponder?

 

His Good ol' Boys club of aviation is being overrun by foreigners takin err jerbs!

 

I think the implication is just that recruiters are searching far and wide for available pilots to the point of tapping international candidates they wouldn't normally have had to go through such great lengths to find and recruit.

That being said, it sounds like classes are still mostly filled one way or another at most regionals and we'll all have to wait for the real show to start ~2 years down the line when retirements become significant.

 

Not necessarily true. Ever heard of a green card marriage? I have no problem working with non US citizens and have had many great coworkers from other countries in the past, but it has to be done legally.

 

Not sure you know the common meaning of what a green card marriage is, based on your context. Allow me:

Green card marriage is a neologism that refers to the marriage of convenience between a legal resident of the United States of America and a person who would be ineligible for residency but for being married to the resident.

 

"Discouraged by the 1,500hr rule? boy it must be really rough to have to get ALL those hours to get to your first airline job. How times have changed."

What he is saying is what you need to get hired at a 121 has changed. In the late 90's and early 2000's you would have been laughed off the property with a mere 1500 hours. It was insanely competitive. If you struggled in training, they showed you the door. There were plenty of other applicants willing to work for crap money to take your place. The market has always dictated the amount of people getting jobs. The industry has ebbed and flowed like this for years. As I said, when times are tough airlines are highly selective and very few are hired, when theres a boom a license and a pulse will suffice. Back in the 1960's all you needed to get hired at United was a Private license and the "ability" to obtain commercial. They hired guys off the street and sent them to flight schools. (Sucks we all missed that boat, doesn't it!?) With that said, I think its time that us regional guys stand up for ourselves and stop letting the industry treat us like red headed step children. The pool is drying up, and now is the time to bend management over a barrel and make them pay us and treat us the way we deserve to be paid and treated.

 

Something has changed... Throw the money and hourly requirements out of the window, society as a whole doesn't view this profession the same way it used to. This is evident in the lack of new people training. Regionals at one point required many more hours, and paid even less, and as others said, no shortage of candidates.
The one thing that I can see is the entry level cost of just acquiring your private. Most people won't even contemplate it.
Supply and demand will always play out. I have a strong feeling that a few regionals would rather go out of business. Blame the Frank Lorenzo's.

 

With all due respect sir, it is this thinking I believe that has caused college tuition to sky rocket and the purpose for which the institution was created to transform into a fashion statement . The idea that one has to go to college to learn how to think is IMHO a ridiculous notion. What has a student been doing from kindergarten to 12th grade? Mindlessly going through the motions of learning? I'm a college graduate and I honestly didn't learn much more than I already knew. I matured some but didn't get any smarter. The point here is that one should be able to think and rationalize just fine upon completion of high school and, college shouldn't be a requirement for flying an airliner. Fighter jet maybe....but even still that's questionable. Why is it that an infantryman doesn't have to have a college education but a fighter pilot does? Do you think that the moment one takes contact from the enemy, having a college education will have taught him how to think enough to win the fight? Nope! What will it be then that helps him in that moment? Training.and the same goes for the fighter pilot. Training and experience is king when it comes to flying an airplane not watered down college curriculum designed for suckers!

To the OP, I am not in the 121 world as of yet. Probably will be there soon as I will be interviewing in the coming weeks. I have observed that there are very few new domestic guys coming into flight training. The vast majority of students these days (from my experience) are foreign who will be returning home to fly.