REX Drop Minimum's

[aussie027]

All the regional airlines here in the United States are also experiencing a shortage of pilots.
They are losing pilots who are moving on to the majors, those that are currently hiring new staff, and not rehiring pilots still on furlough, of which there are approximately 8000.
Many are also leaving because they simply cannot afford to live on, what is basically a minimum wage.

The regionals have drop their hiring minimums here, from what used to be a pretty standard 1200 total and 200 multi engine minimum, to less than 500 total and 50 multi engine, and most can still not get enough. successful applicants to fill classes.

Most of the people taking these jobs are new pilots who have recently been instructing, as a result, most flying schools are now desperate for flight instructors, as most of them are all moving on to the regional airlines as soon as they have the above minimums.
Some regional airlines still fly 19 seat turboprop's, such as Beach 1900's but most fly Brazilia's or Saab's, in conjunction with a large percentage of Canadair and Embraer Regional Jets. Many regionals only fly RJ's.

There are almost a thousand regional jobs available here every month, nationwide, and despite struggling to fill classes, management at all these airlines have done absolutely nothing in the past two or three years since hiring began again in earnest in this country to increase wages beyond their current levels, which will see the first year FO's flying a regional jet, earning less than 20,000 US dollars a year.
That 20,000 US dollars a year is the same as earning $20,000 a year Australian, forget exchange rates as a dollar here buys as little as a dollar in Australia.
Pilots are usually faced with living in in very expensive cities, and on that money cannot pay rent, insurance and, and food for themselves, let alone anything else.

Pilots such as myself who are presently unemployed, and have close to 3000 hours total time simply cannot afford to work for what effectively works out at just above minimum wage, when total duty hours per month are taken into account.

The salary of these airlines even after two to three years still remains below $30,000 per year, and in some regional airlines it can take five to six years before getting command, at which time the salary is still only approximately $40,000.

Every regional airline in this country could easily afford to pay every flight crew captain and first officer, a combined total of more than $50,000 a year on top of what they are currently being paid. If they simply raise the cost of a ticket by $1-$2.
Sadly, as is the case in Australia, as I have been reading on many threads on this forum, management is simply only interested in profit margins, their own salaries and bonuses and treat their most valuable employees, their crews and maintenance staff, as if they are liabilities instead of assets.

If some other pilot loss figures mentioned in the above posts are correct, it is apparent that that REX and many other Australian airlines will not have sufficient crews to staff all flights as is already occurring at virgin blue, Jet Star and some others.

It is ridiculous to think of highly trained and skilled professionals such as ourselves, who have millions of dollars worth of equipment and dozens or hundreds of passengers lives in our hands every day are treated so shabbily by management at companies throughout the world.

If other highly skilled and trained professionals who have spent a fortune on their self education such as doctors and lawyers were faced with similar terms and conditions, after completing basic training, let alone more advanced courses, then without a doubt, there would also be a dire shortage worldwide of doctors and lawyers and other highly skilled professionals. As we all know there is certainly not a shortage of doctors and lawyers in most places in the US or Australia had no shortage of people signing up at university to study in these fields. Many people who have no particular passion for either one of these fields, for example, primarily enter them for the financial rewards usually on offer.