rickair7777

No, you in fact are the idiot and I truly mean that. I didn't say that I LIKE things the way they are, quite the opposite. But if you cannot understand the reality of the situation you have no hope of ever changing anything. In your little mind, you cannot concieve solutions, only people to blame...so who are you blaming?

Management? Plenty of evil here, but they are a force of nature...you can blather all you want, but wishing for THESE folks to change is like p*ssing in the wind, only a lot dumber.

Entry Level New-hires? They are willing to work for the same minimum wage that they ALWAYS HAVE BEEN. Nothing about entry-level pilots has changed AT ALL! What has changed is the size of the airplanes that are available to them...whose fault is that?

Regional Lifers who want CRJ900's, 1000's and airbuses? Sure blame them all you want, but you're not going to change them. They're not going anywhere, so they would like to make more money where they're at...and bigger airplanes is an easy way to do it.

The ONLY pilots who have the experience, wisdom (maybe), and leverage to understand what is happening, see the long-term good, and actually do something about it are the major/national guys who can negotiate scope...and ideally single regional seniority lists for each brand. The regional pilots don't have any leverage against mainline because mainline has diversified their regional flying.

Ok, go back to your xbox now and maybe think about this stuff for ten years or so.

Dog Breath

Okay fellas, no need for insults! Be professional and debate the issues on their merits. Thank you!

PinnacleFO

What I think SlapHappys problem is is that he is part of our generation that I like to call the instant gratification generation. "As long as my company grows now, I am happy." No one cares about the future anymore. Sure, growth is great for your company and its great for you to move up the seniority list and get a better schedule, but is it great for you in the long run that your company (and other regionals) fly jets as big as a small DC-9? Do me a favor, take a look at payscales for that small DC 9 from the 90's and compare them to your W2 from Skywest, and then tell me what is happening in our industry is a good thing for you. I don't have the numbers off hand, but I know they weren't flying them for 19 dollars an hour. I look at 747 captains in the airport now adays and I am almost ashamed at what we do because we walk around in our regional jets with our spiky hair and our laptops and pda's, while when they were our age, they were either at war, or flying a piece of crap cargo plane sacrificing so that one day they could have enough hours to start making the big bucks. Sure, times have changed, but I believe we as a pilot group have to start realizing that we have to do something about this industry so that one day, we WILL make 300000 a year again because that is what we deserve. We move millions of people safely around the world each day and are away from our familys days at a time and right now, we are getting insulted with what we get paid. Skywest might be a good place to work, but not good enough for 19.02 per hour

bla bla bla

slappy happy, hope you love skyw, because you will be there for the rest of your career. Your anti-alpa, anti industry, in it for your self attitude, will be seen by others. Good luck moving on to an ALPA major.

duvie

Most of the BS on this thread wasn't worth responding to. My regional is better than your regional. The whole industry payscale is a result of capatalistic supply and demand. SIMPLE!

Nobody at the majors cares about which regional you came from! Skywest? Cool. Mesa? Alright. Gojets? Whatever. You have our mins? Your dad/uncle flies for us? Awesome, your interview is next month.

ghilis101

yea but i cant let that attitude go unchecked. theres a growing number of people at skywest that think like that and it is downright scary

Koolaidman

Rick, as always, has great points. Who can you blame? How can you fault kids starting out and don't know any better? Management is going to do everything they can to make more money, and who can blame them? Regional guys... are we supposed to not fly if someone loses flying? Who is to say that SkyWest won't be losing flying in five years? I hope that the mainline guys take care of business in the next few years with their contracts. The industry truly depends on them in my opinion.

LIOG41

When did they announced the additional 15 CRJ900's as indicated at www.airlinepilotcentral.com?

Skywest will get another 15 CRJ900s on top of the 17 already receiving below
New MKE domicile to open, 70 crews by October
To operate between 15 and 25 CRJs for Midwest Airlines; 5-year agreement
Midwest flying to begin in April
Skywest has 17 CRJ900s on order, being delivered at a rate of 2/mo
With ASA purchase, largest RJ carrier in the USA
Will maintain separate SkyWest and ASA labor groups and certificates
SkyWest-ASA combined routemap

Burt Reynolds

I think that it was part of the last conference call.

fosters

Gee I wonder why they weren't able to hold onto it. *Cough* SkyWest pilots agreeing to fly bigger airplanes for less money than Comair *Cough*