Originally Posted by
pilotchute
The only reason you have regionals in the USA is to fly routes for the majors under contract. That is the only reason most regionals exist. They also don't fly the same equipment either.
It would be like saying the EMB 145 crews doing Denver to Chicago for a regional should get paid the same as 737 driver at a major? A lot of routes simply wouldn't be profitable if you put 180 seat aircraft on them. If they aren't profitable they get dropped.
See the problem?
Can you point to the words of mine which you misinterpreted as me saying that regional pilots should get the same pay as pilots at the majors? I can help you sort out your misunderstanding. there will always be companies who offer more, and companies who offer less. I doubt that will ever change. But it is also true, that there are plenty of captains at plenty of regional airlines who would be more then happy to retain their seniority, and not move, or have to commute, if the pay scale and work rules were better. Not "same as a major airline" better but enough better that the disparity was not so wide that they were willing dive to the bottom of a much larger seniority list, move to a different city, go back to the right seat (probably for a long time) all to gain the better pay and working conditions. To put it differently, when a senior captain at a regional thinks life wold be better as a junior F/O at another airline, there's a pretty big disparity in terms of employment. And as along as being a junior F/O at a major is much better deal to most (and it is, as as evidenced by the exodus from the regionals) the regionals have a long way to go toward making themselves a decent place to work.
As a side note, are you seriously suggesting that Denver Chicago doesn't have enough traffic for a 180 seat airplane? Really?