@pint'alfempty - petty in the extreme.
@MichaelOLearyGenius - I think you will find that most Ryanair pilots did not 'leapfrog' anyone. Who was being leaped over? The qualified and experienced pilots who did not match Ryanair's recruitment drive? The FIs who became instructors because they could not get an interview when they finished their own training?
Tell me: If experienced pilots, FIs and turboprop pilots had been targetted by the low cost operators and those pilots accepted work with terms and conditions similar to those accepted by the current crop of cadets, would you be critical of them for bending over too?
Because it seems to me than anyone working for the low cost airlines would have to accept the 'trousers round the ankles' scenario, lest another unemployed experienced pilot take the job ahead of them. Blaming cadets using the SSTR tag is easy. But it's only part of the story.
The low cost airlines will get their pound of flesh in either scenario. If they took experienced FOs and Captains instead of cadets, the cost of OCCs would rise and wages for those experienced pilots would fall. Low cadet wages has kept Captain's pay higher than it would otherwise be, just ask anyone at Vueling.
Last edited by Mikehotel152; 4th Apr 2011 at 19:38.