Lerxst, you beat me to it.

 

Why is United wasting time on CFI flows when there are thousands of professional men and women flying United passengers evey single day on United Express? Why is management tap dancing around a true flow? Serious question.

 

Or the thousands of well trained 767, 777, 747, etc pilots who don't have a college degree. They are missing out on some talent based on guys missing a worthless diploma.

 

Mainly because what is left is close to being tapped out. The ones staying at express would be the very senior, and don't want to move and start over. Many reasons to not move.

The others that are left may be unhirable by the majors. Again, many reasons. I'm not talking about the guys that have apps out and actively applying--low time and building.

So, in my opinion, not wasting time. It's going to have to happen sooner or later. My guess is sooner. We may already be at the tipping point where the flow of pilots from express will slow down a lot because no one is left to hire.

Of course this all assumes that massive hiring will continue by all the majors in the foreseeable future and no downturn happens.

 

I think the first challenge will not be finding pilots for the majors, but finding pilots for the regionals. Somehow, the majors will have to figure out how to make the regional jobs attractive enough, or THEIR regional pilot jobs more attractive than their competitors, to attract enough butts to fill seats. I don't think doubling first year pay will help very much.

I believe, at some point in the very near future, one of the majors will decide that putting the pilots of all of their branded flights at the mothership will do the most to attract pilots. Their are tens of thousands of foreign pilots that would love to work for UAL or DAL. But they would not come here to work for Mesa.

At the moment, we are probably trending this way anyway. Scrapping the 37-50 seaters, and buying more narrow bodies is moving the bar that way.

We will see how the end game plays out over the next couple of years.

 

I know countless guys with 4 year degrees, mid 30's, 4000+TT, 1000+TPIC, and flawless driving and training records. All looking to move on. Myself included. The pool of qualified applicants is years from being tapped out

 

How many pilots are at your regional?

How many pilots are UAL/DAL/AA/SWA/AK/FDX/UPS planning to hire in the next 18 months?

You will be moving on, and so will your buds.

 

On the business side, wouldn't the major airlines want to keep the regional guys staffed. That is cheaper and cost effective seat miles for the major airlines. If they depleat the crews from the smaller guys, wouldn't that hurt them.... especially if they hire so many from the smaller guys that flights continue to cancel and get worse. So if they hire from a flight school, they also keep the smaller guys staffed. I don't like it... But it seems like it could be part of the business plan. Speculation of course.

 

The rest of the world, including Europe and Australia, put 250 hour pilots in the right seat of a narrow body.

 

Really?

Please tell us more about these thousands of well trained big jet pilots.

The BS flag is thrown good sir.