one needs to do whatever it takes to get that foot on the first rung of the ladder.
It's this that bothers me. First rung on what ladder? I have been in this industry for 30 years and in that time have seen 4 or 5 full economic cycles. Airlines have come and gone. There have been major business casualties in that time, as well as good times and bad. However in the last 10 years or so there has been an accelerating change in the whole way the airline industry works.
The very notion that a first officers job on an aircraft such a 737 or an A320 , was the "first rung on the ladder" used to be treated with some derision, unless it was part of a rare, highly structured and selective scheme, as used to exist at Hamble/BEA/BOAC/British airways, and a few others. Alternatively there was significant "first commercial rung" employment from military aviators who were transferring career paths. Demand fluctuated with the cycles, but the experience base required was always high enough to ensure the rewards reflected the likely supply of suitable candidates.
The recent evolution of the low cost culture, and by this I don't just mean the well known low cost airlines, brought with it a complete re-think of the employment requirements. For an airline stripping out every conceivable unnecessary cost, the prospect of simply doing away with one pilot was a tempting proposition. Unfortuately for them, that was a regulatory non-starter. However the regulator seemed to have few qualms with them simply shovelling somebody with the requisite bits of paper in their paw, into the right hand seat of a passenger airliner, provided there was sufficient experience in the left hand seat. This then spawned a whole industry of new and established training schools, linking up with airlines to provide this low cost employee. Indeed there was was no shortage of people scrambling to subscribe to the concept.
The enticement was, that once the early sacrifice had been absorbed by a prospective candidate and the initial obstacles were overcome, they would then be on the same salary and career path as everyone that had gone before them. Like all good pyramid schemes that was often the case for the early players. As the new low cost airlines expanded, they created their own career vacuum that was filled from the bottom and that in turn created new demand for eager subscribers at the entry level.
Then two things happened. Firstly the hard recession that has yet to filter through to much of the industry, but will start to very soon, and for the next few years. Secondly, the legislative changes that extended many pilots careers from age 55-60 to age 65, thereby adding up to 10 years to an existing pilots longevity. This killed much of the ordinary wastage by retirement from the industry, and had the knock on effect of restricting movement and lowering terms and conditions from the base upwards. Couple these two major factors, with the new "vanity publishing" method of filling the right seat, and you have the perfect storm. Airlines can now decimate the terms and conditions for pilot employment, and spread those conditions up through the workforce, knowing that those higher up the tree have nowhere to go, and hence no choice. There is little or no demand for new captains in many companies, and precious little for the foreseeable future. Plenty of experienced pilots either unemployed or under threat of redundancy ready to jump at any chance that becomes available. This is exactly what is happening now.
Those on this so called "first rung" are not cheap labour that the airlines are salivating at the prospect of becoming expensive labour in the near future. They are cheap labour that can be easily and readily replaced by more willing "first rungers" as the situation dictates. In many airlines the right hand seat is either already, or in danger of, becoming nothing more than part of the revenue producing training system. Your participation is absolutely no guarantee of any ongoing commitment once you stop becoming part of the revenue stream. Of course, you can take your newly aquired type rating and line flying to another airline. Except that more and more of those "other airlines" aren't much interested in you either, unless you are prepared to be a revenue stream for their own schemes. With few retirements, and little or no movement, the pool starts to back up and overflow. That is what is happening now.
It is alarming just how rapidly the deterioration is spreading up the tree. It won't be too long before people have to pay for their own command assessments, command training, and new type ratings. In fact, in some companies it is already starting to happen. That first rung you aspire to get on, may in fact be nothing more than a hamster wheel, where you pay through the nose to get nowhere fast, or are pushed out/fall off, when you become irrelevant to the business model.
I think changes will come eventually. In the US, there are already legislative changes now coming through to restrict this type of employment to those with at least 1500 hours. I think that will happen here as well eventually. In the meantime there are going to be alot of "tears before bedtime", and that will be throughout the entire industry, not just the entry level "first rungers."