Originally Posted by
de fumo in flammam
Granted I'm slightly out of touch now with both sides of the pond, but hiring in Europe is very different - not mid 20s, but late teen-agers, many of whom left school at 16, went through flying school and are on a Boeing at 18-19 and 160 hours total (especially outside the EU Majors). Not necessarily bad, but different (especially if you are used to experienced crew)...
I wasn’t debating the difference between hiring in the US vs Europe as far as the experience of pilots. You asked me how I would feel if I had much younger people above me on the seniority list. If I today, aged 43, joined an airline, be it in the US or Europe, I would have loads of pilots much younger than me way above me on the seniority list. As you know, that’s just how the system works.
Nothing you can be bitter about should you end up in such a situation, either you like it and stay, or look for a place where you can maintain your captain title. This is in my case one of the reason I don’t cross over from corporate aviation to the airlines, I prefer to keep my salary or better it when I change jobs. So far that has worked for me througout my career always increasing my pay check when moving on. Hopefully it will stay that way until I retire, but I realize it also may not.