Originally Posted by
guy_incognito
In my opinion, the job was barely worth doing on the salaries hitherto offered. It's clear that airline management industry wide has long had pilot Ts&Cs firmly in their sites and this crisis has provided them with the golden opportunity to swing the axe. Even any changes presented as "temporary" will inevitably turn out to be not so temporary.
The problem lies in the fact that very few pilots have the qualifications and experience to go and do anything else, without making a significant investment in terms of time and money. WW, PB at easy, MOL etc. all know that they have pilots over a barrel, and that they can offer literally anything they want knowing that the majority of people will sign up just to keep some money coming in. Maybe people will sign up thinking that the "good times" will return. Clearly demand will rise at some point in the industry, but with a seemingly never-ending queue of kids (or their parents) willing to pay £120k for flight training, there's no reason to think that Ts&Cs will ever return to the level we saw three months ago.
Once Ts & Cs are trashed, this will no longer be a sought-after career, with all the initial training costs, continual pressure from fatigue (FTL limits set as targets), being away from home, sim checks, medicals, etc, and the ultimate responsibilty of many lives.
Who knows in how many years, but I think there will be a global shortage.
Unless of course the industry will change with technology to a single pilot with a ground-based back-up, or even no pilots at all!