Originally Posted by
JOSHUA
So easy for any one us us to preach when we’re already established in an airliner seat, earning decent bucks. Take yourself back to the early 2000’s when jobs were scarce and sat with a fresh licence, all you wanted to do was sit at the front of an airliner and start building those hours to further your career. If you don’t take the job, someone else will whilst you’re sat there hoping/dreaming and still having to pay to keep your licence current.
The regulators and pressure from unions (supported by those of us already established in the industry) is the only way any of these poor t&c’s/pay can be addressed. Otherwise, one can only hope the supply of cadets due to to excessive costs and lack of funds, will dry up - then perhaps improvements will happen......
I started a little earlier than that, but not much. Yes, there were good and bad years for recruitment, there was hardly anything in the mid 90's, , then late 90's it got lively and then died again in around 2001. Hey ho, that's capitalism red in tooth and claw. But the big difference was that the jobs, even with the bottom feeding turbo prop operators, came with a paid for type rating and a bond. The bond reduced with your service, or if you left early, you paid it off. I got paid pretty much the same in 97 as an Eastern FO does now, without the debt mountain round my neck. I think there are going to be a lot of very unhappy burnt out, debt laden pilots in the future, juggling training, mortgage and God forbid, divorce costs from a large headline salary, which leaves them with very little left to have fun with.