rescue 1: "Young pilots would always leave a turboprop operator regardless of pay...generally most airline type pilots aspire towards flying jets and QF Link cannot offer that pathway."
I disagree here. If the big Q wanted to, they could solve most of their crewing problems, right up the chain, by providing a set career progression. 2yr Dash FO, 2yr Dash CPT, 2 yr widebody SO - and so on. They could even include a stint at J* before coming back to mainline as an FO.
If people could see that they will be on a jet, in mainline, within 5 years then it is worth doing 'the time' in a dash 8 to get there. However, it is probably a bit late now for such a system.
These days though, even that may not please some people. I have heard people whining because they got "stuck on that little Jungle Jet" - what a waste of their massive 1500 hours experience...
