Hello to all on this thread from the land of Oz. I am a yank who works for a major carrier and who does union work in training. In the past our training guys worked very closely with the company to ensure that they were getting people who would pass the required training with no problems.
It does not save the company any money at all to hire marginal candidates who are always on the verge of not qualifying or who are unable to complete training. Many of our committee members are active or former check airman.
However now the company has definitely given our training committee the cold shoulder. It is not that management labor relations are bad, they are not. It is not that the company is not profitable, they are. It is because the mess the industry now finds itself in is purely of their own making.
The current version of the Regional Airline Industry in the United States did not arise out of an independent market forces. It is a creation of the Major carriers. Immediately after President Jimmy Carter signed the Airline Deregulation Act in 1978, there was an explosion of small regional carriers operating turboprop equipment that were feeding the new hubs that major carriers were forming.
In the late 70's and 80's there regional airlines popping up everywhere. Look at this Wikipedia site to see how many there were.
http://en.wikipedia.or/wiki/List_of_..._United_States
As the new deregulated industry matured there was no longer endless growth and some of the hub system was mostly complete. The majors now needed to compete with a "branded product" instead of a simple "code share" so they started the Wholly owned concept. American Eagle was one of the first. Delta acquired Comair, an independent Regional, United had a major stake in Air Wisconsin etc.
By the Early 90's the growth had stopped and the airlines were looking for ways to cut costs. Along comes Bombardier and Embrarer with an idea to build the RJ or regional Jet. The problem was the scope protections built into the major airline pilot contracts. Those contracts forbade the Regional's from flying jets under the majors colors.
American went on strike over the issue and the President intervened, as he is allowed to do under the Railway Labor Act, and the RJ was firmly entrenched in the US. (I believe that the first RJ was operated by Comair, under a Delta contract but that was done under an agreement with the Delta pilots.)
The only problem with the RJ concept of Regional Airlines is that the RJ is a crappy platform for fuel economy. On a per seat basis the RJ is far more expensive to operate than a larger Boeing or an Airbus. When the CRJ first flew in the US in the mid 90's to cost per barrel of oil was about $22. It is now over $100. Delta parked the majority of the Comair RJ fleet in the desert.
http://aviationdoctor.files.wordpres...h-22145611.jpg
The US RJ industry is a Frankenstein Monster that the Major's created. It cannot stand on its own. It was created for the purpose of defeating the scope language of major carrier pilot contracts. It uses inefficient aircraft and due to high fuel costs the profitability of the industry is always on the edge. The pilots have all been beaten up and are not willing to give concessions when the major partners are turning in record profits. The majors realize they are unlikely to get significant cost relief from pilot contracts.
The majors are turning to any scheme they can to see if they can get pilots to fill the seats at the regional level. What I see from this effort is the RAA, (US Regional Aircraft Association) doing an internet reach out to Australia and NZ to see if qualified candidates willing to send CV's and apply. If there are then there will be a major lobbying push up on Capitol Hill for waivers on green cards due to a shortage of qualified candidates in the US. US law allows immigration waivers where an employer can demonstrate a shortage of qualified individuals in the US for a given job or profession. The problem of course is not a shortage of pilots but a shortage of dollars to pay those pilots.
If you think that the United States Congress provides the best form of government that money can buy then I invite you to send your resume and work for less than a 40 hour week at McDonalds pays. Our Congress will most likely grant exemptions and a whole new crop of hopefuls will get off the "boat" with SJS, or Shiny Jet Syndrome and then realize later that it was all a scam.