Braveheart correctly points out a market distortion unique to pilots, the seniority list. Or the serfdom contract. No other group of professionals (Pilots are not professionals by most definitions of the term. No true professional would accept their position being based on seniority as opposed to merit) or skilled technicians would be so stupid to accept such a system. Look who is making good money these days and see if there is a seniority list in sight?
what do you mean by merit? Promotions have always been based on achieving a requisite standard. That is measured by an individuals performance at various check points as well as their general attitude and demeanor. Companies with seniority lists are unlikely to be any different with regard to the merit requirements for an upgrade or promotion. The seniority system simply provides a list that is clear to all where they are in the consideration chain. It most certainly doesn't and never has ensured that an otherwise unsuitable candidate would be promoted simply by virtue of their longevity within a company.
Even within a seniority based system there has always been scope for taking individuals who display a particular talent, for training or management appointments.
The seniority based systems does a number of things. Firstly it rewards loyalty. That is not a purely altruistic motive on the part of the employer. It has the beneficial effect of reducing the need for training and establishment costs at those airlines by reducing the number of people who might otherwise simply seek greener pastures. It also gives an individual a clear progression scale that should provide motive and incentive. Few people have their eyes on the bottom of these scales, they are all looking at the top. It shows the rewards that are available for a planned career within that company.
Of course when you simply offload all of those training and establishment costs to the candidate themselves, that loyalty is much less important. Let them do what they want, because the next batch waiting in the wings will cough up the money themselves to meet all of these costs. In that case one size might as well fit all. If they don't like it, they can leave. Without a seniority system it lays the company open to charges of bias and unfairness (of which I don't doubt they care little,) if others who joined later are being promoted for no otherwise obvious reason, because somebody happens to like them, or they didn't accidently park in the wrong parking spot. The point when they should be considered should be transparent to all.
In most companies it a fairly low percentage of those pilots that don't achieve the necessary requirements for command. So this idea of special merit, is nothing more than a simple cost saving excercise by those companies that seek advantage by such practices. Good for them, not for the employee necessarily.
A beazlebub points out what is required to do the job in terms of experience has changed, without a detrimental effect to the public. Travel is safer and cheaper.
Well more accurately it has been allowed to change. To be honest I have little doubt that if it were permitted, I could fly with my 14 year old son in the right seat without detrimental effect to the public. The problem comes when eventually even those small odds conspire against you, and the public indignation then goes into overdrive. There is no shortage of experienced pilots, and for airline operations there should only be commensurate levels of experience required. That should certainly include a full ATPL at entry level at the very least.
The Colgan accident, a TP not a jet, was just a tiny blip on a trend and is unlikely to change anything.
Yes just a blip, but it has already awoken that clamour of public indignation. In the USA it is likely to change the ab initio requirements for airline First Officers, to those I have already suggested. That requirement will eventualy cross the Atlantic as well. The airlines will hate it and fight tooth and nail. The 200 hour "wannabes" will cry foul. The pilot factories will be apoplectic with rage. But it will be better for the industry and those it employs in the long run.