Originally Posted by
bafanguy
Nu,
"One can fuss and fume, but its not going to change any time in the foreseeable future."
Agree. I'm just a little surprised some regional, in particular, hasn't made more of an overt, serious effort to get access to expats...if it's all as dire as alleged. Perhaps it isn't ?
It isn't. There are tons of pilots...some doing Part 135 charter, some doing corporate work, some are ex-pats looking to return home. But a lot of these guys aren't going to do it for $35k a year, or even $45k/yr.
The regional business has been living off the coat-tails of the major airlines for decades, dependent on their pay/benefits/quality of life to draw people into the pipeline. Even during times of massive turnover (late 80s, late 90s), their minimums were always at or near ATP minimums. The 1,500 hour rule would have been, for the vast majority of history, completely redundant, since the regionals themselves had minimums at or above 1,500 hours anyway.
But when did the pipeline supposedly collapse? During times of massive turnover? No, it didn't...the drop in minimums happened in 2005-07, when the industry was mostly stagnant, and turnover was at a low ebb.
But what did happen in right before that (2004) was the massive retrenchment of pay, benefits and QoL at the major airlines. Once people saw that the pot of gold had turned to the pot of lead, they saw that there were vastly better opportunities to pursue that didn't' involve $100k of debt and a very restrictive lifestyle.
You might disagree with some of the things that ALPA says or does, but in this they're right on the mark. It's not a pilot shortage, but a pay shortage, at all levels of the industry.
The pre-2004 pay/benefits package of the majors included, roughly, 50% more pay, paid health care, and fully funded defined benefit retirement plans (that required no contribution). Work rules were excellent and advancement was predictable, if a bit uneven at times. Some might call that the halcyon days, or even unsustainable, but I would say that was the package that was required to put butts in the seats...throughout the entire industry, not just at the majors.
If the long term compensation of the industry isn't sufficient, then people are just going to do something else. It shouldn't really be a surprise to anyone.
Nu