"“We’re hoping that the majors will increase their requirements for number of hours … and (stop) taking all the 1,500-hour guys off the street, which are the guys we need now too,” she said."

If my employer said this, I would put in my notice immediately! I am pretty sure I can paraphase this statement by saying, "to he!! with our employees career ambitions, we need them enslaved here"

Poor Uncle Dougie!!

Easier said then done, remember who these guys are and why they are there. A 15 month training contract for $7500 that isn't prorated and low time. Lakes was one of the few airlines still hiring guys well below 1500 hours when the other airlines either raised their mins progressively higher. They lost a few pilots due to no accreditation for 1000 hour exemption as well as not training their FO's for ATPs until it was too late and many dequalled on the 1st.

What really grinds my gears isn't that these guys work for low wages or the poor work rules, or even that they are trying to circumvent the 1500 hour with a 135 cert. No, it's the management.

Keeping in mind this is an anonymous forum, and I will not give out any names, I actually was in Cheyenne about 3 weeks ago where I ran into a member of Lakes middle management. They overheard I was a pilot and asked me if I knew why so many ppl are leaving Lakes (at least they already understood why they couldn't get NEW pilots) and wanted my perspective on how pilots view the situation

..........ok I edited this part out about what I said to make it shorter and next is their response to every 121 op requiring ATP (RAH SKW AE and Express Jet).........


"But those guys are MAJORS We don't operate on that scale, you can't compare us to them. Pilots come here to get to the majors quicker with Captain time."

The irony in this statement is killing me.

I know....and supposedly they STILL have ppl applying there. New classes in Sept.

Now I am really laughing! Yea, poor Great Lakes...at least double your pay rates, improve the working conditions or RIP...
The 135 thing was too late!

And comments like that illustrate just how out of touch there regional airline managements are. They pay their guys (literally) the equivalent of a minimum wage worker. A guy making 8 bucks an hour at McDonald's makes about $16,000 per year working 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year. A guy working as a Great Lakes F/O makes $16/hour which is around $16,000 per year. Oh wait. They don't get paid during training, so they'll make less than a minimum wage worker their first year at GL. And they can't understand why they can't guys to work for them????

It's a stupid argument anyway. If I were an average software engineer working at an average small company vs. an average large company, would I be earning 10 TIMES less than the average software engineer at a large company? An accountant? A nurse?

Well, one of two things will happen at Lakes assuming they don't "get lucky" with an economic downturn. They'll either raise pilot compensation, or they'll park a bunch of airplanes for lack of pilots- their choice.

Sophistry. You can't compare the economic productivity of a Part 121 pilot to a software engineer at a large company, or small company, an accountant or a nurse.

It appears that the government may have just priced small EAS operators out of the market if they can't increase fares.

Good! For someone who's flown EAS for 1.5 yrs what a tremendous waste of money!

And did they seriously say they'll let go pilots that have 1499hrs?