Originally Posted by
Memphis Hubert
For me, I didn't say there is no shortage. I just tried to separate between continents, countries and markets. I fully agree with the reports from the US, I've got friends there and needless to say, why the big legacy carriers there are offering fantastic salaries, being 3x as much as the highest salary with European legacy carriers.
But once again - this is an "artificial" shortage, promoted by strict immigration rules and the pilots unions in the US. If the "shortage" would seriously endanger the business of US-carriers, they would already have asked Washington to easen Green Card-requirements for pilots. With the given T&Cs, I could imagine myself applying there, even commuting from Europe.
And Europe (once again: Europe, not US/UK!) doesn't reflect that. Yes, there are now jobs, however there are still closures (i.e. due to sanctions against Russia) and cutbacks like at SAS or last years TUI Airlines (massive layoffs), which help other airlines fill their vacancies. As Oasis said, it will take a long run, before this affects T&Cs. And neither Lufthansa, nor Air France and others are offering DEC-opportunities, and they never will, as unions keep an eye on that.
A good summary is this post from last year (NetJets): pprune.org/biz-jets-ag-flying-ga-etc/642679-netjets-europe-hiring-again-20.html?ispreloading=1#post11242083
It might be 1 year old, but basically the situation hasn't much changed till now, except that there are more (low paid) vacancies.
I wouldn't entirely call it an "artificial" shortage because of immigration laws, because it isn't just that. Yes, it plays a factor, but one of the biggest reasons the US has a shortage is the 1500 hour rule to operate any part 121 aircraft. I won't get into all the reasons why the "shortages" exist, we've gone off topic enough
Whatever the reasons are, T&C's in the US have gone from some of the worst in the world, i.e regional FO's making 20k USD a year 10-15 years ago, to now, arguably, the best T&C's in the world, where-as Cathay, once one of the best, if not the best, airlines to work for in the world, has gone the complete opposite way in recent years.
Call it what whatever you want, it's unfortunate, and clearly, cyclical, based on many variables. That's the reality, and the point I wanted to make is, people need to accept the ever changing environment, and not pretend that everything is fine, when it's not.