If you don't think there is a correlation between the low pay for FO's and the deteriorating conditions generally in our industry, then you are deluded.
Yes undoubtably. The deteriorating rewards are entirely consistent with the supply outstripping demand in the marketplace. At this point in time that hasn't made much of an inroad into command salaries, but eventually it will.
The question I was asked was:
Aren't you afraid it will eventually dilute your salary
and the reply I gave was:
I doubt of all the things that do dilute my salary, the experience levels of First officers who are recruited has a great deal of correlation at this point in time.
Demand for pilots outside of certain middle and far Eastern markets is patchy and weak. T&C's generally have been significantly affected across the board by the wholesale "slash & burn" in the drive to eliminate cost. Airlines in competition with the larger and leaner
lo-co newcomers (in relative terms) have had to adapt to these new realities. Cadet salaries reflect the experience level of these pilots. Usually this is the case for the first year or two and then the "low experience" factor becomes less significant in the equation. If cadets disappeared tommorow to be replaced by ATPL holding F/O's would there be any real shortage? I doubt it, so it is unlikely that there would be any real supply pressure on the general T&C's. Command salaries are at this point largely unaffected by F/O salaries, which (other than the cadet savings) remain in proportion to those that have existed previously.
Across the industry generally, there has been an elimination of such things as final salary pension schemes, and many of the lifestyle benefits that never were a feature of the
Lo-Co operators. Cost of living pay rises have been pared back to the bone. However this is true right across the broader economic spectrum as well. To suggest that cadets are in any meaningful way to blame for these reductions is ludicrous. Given the experience levels generally required for command consideration, a glut of very low hour cadets actually reduces the suppy side of the command equation moreso than a glut of experienced F/O's would.
So yes,
I doubt of all the things that do dilute my salary, the experience levels of First officers who are recruited has a great deal of correlation at this point in time. I hope that explains the rationale and also the context of the answer in relation to the question that was asked.
You are on a different planet! You got to be mangement or a wannabee!
Ezy with characteristic consistency, you are wrong, wrong and wrong! Although to be fair, I do not know which planet you are on, so I might have to defer on that point.