Remoak you're a pragmatic and sensible bloke but you have just made me laugh, by busting out that bloody Boeing pilot-shortage nonsense.
Your arguments so far have been
1 - it's OK to take the shafting, because it's still better than the shafting you'll receive in kiwi GA.
Can't argue with that.
( And while we're on the subject, all you guys who are now pointing the finger at Jetstar for lowering the bar, what have you been doing the last 40 years, while the cynical
pr!cks in GA have been setting the bar so damn low in the first place. Why is it suddenly pure evil for Jetstar to pay 200 hour pilots a $50 grand salary, when the cheapskate flying schools and para drop operators and scenic charter companies all over the country have been paying their people sub minimum wage or zero for bloody decades, and nobody's cared or lifted a damn finger to help, least of all that bastion of pilot protection called NZALPA. If anyone is serious about trying to improve the lot of ALL pilots in this country, lets start by making a serious minimum award wage for GA and come down like a ton of bricks on people who try to get around it. Then at least young guys will have a realistic alternative option to cadet schemes like this. )
2 - It's OK to take the shafting, because it's better than being an unemployed uncurrent 200 hour wonder, and you never know when another 9/11 is just around the corner
Can't argue with that either.
3 - it's OK to take the shafting, because there's a huge pilot shortage around the corner and you want to be ready for it
errrrr ... no. Sorry bro but going down that road just leads to madness and misery and flying school marketing hype. The "upcoming pilot shortage" has been the cause of more unemployed CPL holders, unpaid student loans, "C" cat exploitation, and certain
ers at flying schools getting rich at sucker's expense, than just about anything else I can think of on this earth.
If I thought for a second that good times were just about to roll, I'd be doing the exact opposite, I'd be telling these guys NOT to take the scheme and hold out for better. Sadly, I don't think that is the case at all.
Phoenix :
Also I'd be interested if you could find something that backed up the theory that cadet programs over the UK have resulted in a decline in pay for those beyond the cadets. Have the FO's or the Capts started taking pay drops because of the programs resulting in the increase in demand?
Short answer is, F/O's yes, definitely, captains not really. Do your research and you'll find that F/O's at Easy and Ryan were paid a lot more in the '90s than they are now. Mainly because once a cadet scheme gets well established, they simply stop hiring people on the "old" F/O contracts altogether. They didn't really introduce the cadet schemes until post 9/11, they used to hire experienced guys to the right seat up to that point and then changed their policy it seems. Captains have a lot more power to resist that kind of nonsense, if F/O's go on strike then Michael O'leary has a tendency to just sack them outright or deny them their upgrades or something, he's got a lot less power to do that to the captains, although he talks tough.