You won't be seeing any increase in flight crew pay and benefits; rather just the opposite. The top pay is only at FedEx and at UPS; pilots at the rest of the "legacy" carriers are getting squeezed not only on pay, but on benefits, including pensions. Relentless downward pressure on wages and benefits; and a squeeze for ever more flight and duty times has become practical reality. At slave driving outfits like Ryan Air, crews actually have to
pay for coffee. Imagine that! Pilots have become like "blue collar" workers; bus/truck drivers with wings. In fact, many long haul truck drivers make more money than copilots at low cost carriers.
And there is no real shortage of pilots, only a shortage of very experienced, high time pilots.
