Paraphrased from TOF regarding Casey's letter:

Regarding the domestic scope/codeshare of which you speak...Correct me if I'm wrong but most regional airlines can barely staff themselves adequately today. How are they going to staff themselves with more flying via increased codeshare/relaxed scope at their mainline partners? This is a serious question. Just go the the Regional forum on airline pilot central and read for a few minutes. Even the best Regionals are critically short. They have no FO reserves and because of it Captains frequently fly trips together. This after only 3,000 retirements since 2012. There are 23,500 age 65 retirements scheduled in the next 10 years. Delta is cancelling lift with their regional feed and moving lots of flying in house as we speak.

What am I missing? I'm not suggesting we give away scope/codeshare protections. I'm just wondering if this is even an issue. How does the airline industry expect to find more pilots than they've ever had to and get them to fly for less pay at theoretically larger regional airlines?

 

That's a good question. Wonder if Casey will see it, and if he does, I wonder if he'll answer?

 

As someone in the pool waiting to start class, I don't want to see any SWA routes or planes unless they're flown by SWA pilots.

I spent over a decade at a regional while mainline voted away scope for a chance at saving pensions (didn't happen) and better pay. Once it's gone, it's never coming back.

Scope is the single most important thing in the contract. Without it you end up like UAL, AA, and DL where the majority of your feed is flown by subcontractors for pathetic pay.

 

Insert facepalm emoticon here X

 

Someone looking to give away domestic codeshare?

JetBlue | Partner airlines

Your threat isn't just from outsourcing to regional fee-for-departure carriers, it is giving domestic codeshare to companies like us at JB, VX, NK, F9, HA, AS

 

Never surrender scope. Ever.

 

So many at SWA just can't grasp that simple concept.

 

Well, I'm certainly not going to vote it in with the HOPE that another carrier can't staff the work. What kind of crazy logic is that!?

I'm a firm believer that the "shortage" is a PR scheme created by the airline industry to try to scare regulators into not implementing more regulation (FAR 117). We certainly don't have a shortage of applicants, nor does any other major. There will always be some juniors salivating for the chance to jump into an ERJ for $20k/yr....

 

To be fair, the pilots at SWA grasp it better than any other US airline!

 

This plus 1000. Not to mention that as your business model matures and you start thinking widebodies make sense, you can instead enjoy your company putting its code on 20 different foreign carriers instead of flying your own metal with your own pilots.