Crikey guys,
Not much point me saying anything else! But you know me. I appreciate the support, but you must be aware odyssey, their support is bourne out of a true knowledge of the situation. I, like others simply choose to make comment on it.
The reason I monitor the cadet forum is because of the implications it will have not just for REX and the current pilot group, but for the Cadets themselves. Follow the advice of the others and have a good read through this and other threads. You will see that I am not anti-REX, but I do care for the long term future of our profession. That future may include cadets, but it should be for the right reasons.
REX pilots are, remuneration wise and relatively speaking, 17-20% worse off today to what they were 10 years ago! That is a fact. The incentive payments for pilots to work on their days off is only 80% of what it was 13 years ago, and that's in real terms! Fact. This is just the tip of the iceberg. The inexorable reduction in professional pilots terms and conditions (aided and abeted by inept company management, Ansett and Hazelton) has led us to where we are today. If you are a cadet odyssey, but somehow I feel you are not, then you are being sold a wages and conditions package that is more than a decade out of date. REX management are pitching this to young and impressionable people, because the pilots they really need are not buying it. In fact, GA has been so decimated by the advantage taken of subsequent pilot groups over the years that there are few left out there with the required experience at all. Those left are not willing to settle for it. And who can blame them.
And don't think REX won't cast you adrift if it suits them. I have it on good authority that REX will simply reduce services further if they are unable to source future Captains. REX has an enviable, if not outstanding debt equity ratio. They could literally cut the company services in half and still survive. Instead of 240 pilots they very well may have to do the job with 120! These will consist of the last remaining 70 or so captains. The rest will be made up of the 50+ F/O's who cannot be upgraded, or maybe the only remaining F/O's that can be. As for the rest, retrenchment. Ever heard that word? So REX makes 10 million a year instead of 20 million, at least untill things bounce back, and that may take years. The real casualties will be the junior non upgradeble pilots at the bottom of the seniority list, and of course the flying public.
But what do they care!
Last edited by KRUSTY 34; 20th September 2008 at 07:09.