The company doesn't need any relief on scope if they want to utilize a small aircraft.

 

If they want to remain financially viable they do.

 

So how can regional airlines survive these days now that the have to pay a livable wage to their new hires?

Looks to me like you’ve been conditioned to believe the narrative that unless the regional pilots make poverty wages, they’ll go out of business. That was proven wrong.

 

Why do you think regionals are still merging? Not because they want to…they have to to survive. The rest are being propped up financially by their codeshare owners who don’t have a choice since their pilots sold their scope for a handful of beans. Big 3 could certainly bring it back in house…They serve a purpose and for the time being…it’s apparently still cheap enough to operated by subcontractors….and mainline pilots think little RJ’s are gross and beneath them.

I’d fly a PC-12 from DEN-CYS daily for the same pay if it meant driving to work still. Pay me enough and I’ll fly anything….

 

That's how it should be. If they depend on new hire FO qualifying for food stamps to stay in business, they deserve to go out of business. Same if they depend on captain wage being 60k/year, they don't deserve to be in business.

 

100%. I was a 11 yr CA making $86/hr when I came here in ‘15. 11 yr pay is now $182.88. FO pay was barely over $40 for a topped out FO…now it’s $98. They have rigs, cx pay, pay multiples, etc. It’s a night and day difference and I honestly thought with those CBA gains they’d be brought into the fold a lot sooner. Maybe the wholly owned thing works best with metered flows for their business model?

 

Regionals don’t have legacy CBAs. Ask the average Skywester how much their NEC contribution is…

 

This place doesn’t want regional feed. The economics don’t make sense and there has been so much consolidation in the regional space that I highly doubt it would work anyway just because the capacity has finally matched the demand that the legacy airlines have. That plus the death grip that we the pilots have on scope means it would be prohibitively expensive to even attempt it.

Will it ever happen? Maybe. We seem to fill airplanes now using the existing network and if the analysts and our bosses are correct, we should have a healthy revenue stream that we can start tapping for free cash. If they drastically changed the business model and needed regional feed to fill a bigger airplane then sure, they can worry about it then and do it using organic means. I am all for growing the seniority list by adding another aircraft type. I just don’t see it happening anytime soon.

 

Skywesters don't have any CBA.

 

Incorrect… for better, or worse…

there’s significant caselaw that says what they have is a CBA negotiated under the RLA.

https://www.fordharrison.com/airline...ement-letter-6

https://www.casemine.com/judgement/u...d7b049342cbf4a