Interesting to see how attitudes to seniority change depending on which side of the fence you sit.. .There are very few industries that can be compared to aviation for employee committment to their company, as can be seen by many of the posts on these forums, and one of the reasons is the seniority system. Most people I know that are lucky enough to get a start with a large airline, hope that is where they retire. . .Unfortunately, as we have seen over the years, this can go astray with the demise of a company, but up until then the workers are very loyal and will protect "their" company and its reputation to the end.. .Do you think this would happen without seniority?. .As for the argument that it costs money to train new people when qualified people are available, I am sure it would cost a lot more to train senior pilots leaving to see if the grass is greener, if no seniority was in place.. .Seniority also protects airlines when there are shortages of pilots, as that becomes the perfect opportunity to jump the fence.. .I am sure everyone at Ansett would have been very happy with their seniority while the airline was still operating, and outsiders from Qantas not being able to jump in and take commands on Ansett aircraft just because they have experience on type.. .One of the other occupations I can think of where workers normally stayed a long time was the police force. And you would only have to live in NSW to know what a debacle giving promotions not based on seniority has caused there! The entire police force became a joke, with arse kissers getting promotions over those that just went to work and did their job. Needless to say loyalty to the job went out the window.. .It is part of the system that when you join an airline, you start at the bottom of the list, do your job well, and you get to move up. No arse kissing required and I for one hope it stays that way.