Originally Posted by initial vector
All markets, including the Pilot market is built on "supply and demand".......Once the demand for pilots increases (and a pilot shortage is predicted by 2014!) then the T&C's will automatically get better and better!
The fabled 'pilot shortage' is just that, a fable. There never was one and there never will be. The supply has always been greater than the demand, that has never changed. What has changed is the perceived status of the job. Both among those who offer the job and those who take it.
The last 15 years or so have seen a continuous decline is T&Cs and it is continuing.
The preferred F/O is now one with a freshly printed license as they have been conditioned to and are willing to pay for much of the company's cost of hiring them. They are also cheaper once hired. More importantly experience is no longer seen as adding any value to an F/O.
This trend is now spreading as we see the first P2F schemes for Captains emerge.
The only shortage we'll eventually see is of experience. But even that wont slow down the beancounters.