Yes, this is exactly what is confusing, why would an intelligent, highly skilled person accept this? My point was, you can't blame this entirely on the regionals. If a recruiter interviews two people with similar backgrounds, experience, etc. and one says he wants to be paid $100K and the other says I love this work so much, I'll do it for $40K. Who do you pick? The $40K guy who is clearly enthusiastic about the work and will work for cheaper, of course. Prior to 2019, there seemed to be plenty of folks who wanted to be pilots so badly that they were willing to accept low pay, marginal working conditions. That has now changed somewhat, demand has increased and barriers to entry are time consuming and expensive. So the regionals and the majors have to adjust their models to scale to the new demand curve. This is a time of transition where the experienced pilots now carry a bigger stick. I would think Skywest, without a union, would have some flexibility to offer some creative compensation packages, not only $$$ but QOL incentives, but that doesn't seem to be happening yet. I think there is still the mentality in management that folks want to be pilots so much, they will still accept market minimums.

Regionals are always economically constrained by the fact that they are codeshare -,they don’t sell their own tickets. But for Skywest - and most regionals right now - they have more FOs than they can gainfully employ. Because they can’t keep enough CAs. Despite DEC bonuses and credit for longevity at other regionals. And increasingly, they can’t keep their own senior FOs long enough to become upgrade eligible. No amount of zero 121 time FOs coming in at the bottom will change that until the majors stop hiring.

Adding new FOs when you don’t have the CAs you need o optimally utilize the ones you have simply slows the progress toward the day your existing FOs will be upgrade eligible by diluting out the SIC hours available - which just encourages the experienced FOs to jump to ULCCs or ACMI.


https://www.ft.com/content/70f0805c-...9-aabb0ea36324

Start using it now. Drop it on empty days on Sked. The advantage of this method over the lump sum payout is you accrue duty on it so in turn earn even more time.

so use both vacation and user time?

First world problems.

Yes, I am fully aware of this problem. But Skywest forced upgrades and how many folks left due to that? They had an opportunity to poll the pilots anonymously to find out why they didn't want to upgrade and offer them incentives that would make them feel good about upgrading. Isn't it cheaper to give certain incentives to your current pilots then have to pay bonuses and training for new DECs? What if you gave those pilots certain alternatives they could chose from, such as (1) remain in the base they are currently in (2) longevity match (3) additional paid training, etc., and you can chose one of those alternatives to make the transition better? It doesn't work in the regional model to have FO lifers, it reduces the pull needed to train new pilots. But with all the smart folks working there, they can't come up with a better model that significantly reduces the problem? It seems shortsighted because the way the market is now if management doesn't get more creative, they are going to struggle with this problem for a long time and it will negatively impact operations and financial outcomes for years.

If the FOs woukdn’t upgrade they were part of the problem. They were sucking up the limited SIC hours available to keep others who WERE willing to upgrade from accumulating the 1000 hours of SIC necessary to upgrade.

Apparently not, since managements generally ALWAYS go for the cheapest alternative.

1. So you want them to violate other CA pilots seniority to keep you at a base? Or just stack CAs at a base where they aren’t needed?
2. Longevity match with what? How many different regionals have your senior FOs been employed at?
3.I am reasonably sure that you actually get paid during upgrade training. And the pay raise from making CA is non-trivial.


It would be acceptable if they were balanced by lifer CAs, but the vast majority of CAs prefer to move on to someplace that pays better and has more benefits.

Doesn’t matter how smart they are, they cannot change the CA requirements mandated under § 121.436, and slavery and indentured servitude were outlawed by the 13th amendment. Most CAs are GOING TO leave for a major eventually, barring exceptional personal circumstances or so close to mandatory requirement it doesn’t matter.


If they DON’T mandate updates they will be out of business before that. They can replace FOs with 2000 hrs of 121 time with brand new guys right off IOE. If the high time FOs aren’t going to upgrade, there is little reason to keep them. That’s attrition they NEED to have.

??
Do you work here?
The forced upgrades were mostly done so they could stay in their current domicile. Not all, but most. Longevity match? You do know you transfer over to the captain scale with however many years you have with the company and not start over at year 1. 10 year FO goes to 10 year CA pay. If you need extra training, you are always paid for it. Nothing here is done without pay. There are some limits on how much extra training you can receive, but they also just added extra stuff into the syllabus.

The pilots I know that weren't upgrading, did not need the money and usually had other stuff going on in their life.

We also now have fewer Captains than we did when the forced upgrades started last October.

Yup, and the imbalance is the same as it was before the forced upgrades began. So what has this disaster of a policy achieved? Let's see... Ah yes. Precisely nothing, aside from encourage more people to update their apps.