Originally Posted by
ILUV767
The problem is that pay and work rules have been in a constant downward spiral especially since every airline has been in chapter 11. People want their ticket to Orlando for a little less and to make that type of market sustainable it comes at a price...and that is that the high paying pilot jobs are now few and far between. Pilots have to start somewhere but the problem is that with so much outsourcing of pilot jobs the mainline jobs are now hard to come by. Pilots cant just up and leave unless they want to leave the profession. When you start over at a new airline, you're at the bottom of the pay scale and the seniority list.
All of you should want your pilots to be fairly compensated. Airlines get what they pay for. Airlines that pay better typically have higher minimums for a pilot job meaning that the pilot applicant will be more experienced to be hired.
Originally Posted by
AndyTLe
As has been seen time and time again, people only care about one thing, the lowest fare possible.
Just a question that hopefully someone can answer. Is there anything stopping the airlines from outsourcing (from other countries) pilots? I know that foreign airlines get their pilots from abroad but would it be possible for US airlines to do such a thing?
This really has little to do with keeping fares low. The majors outsource out any flying that must be done by smaller planes (the upper limit of "smaller" being defined by the mainline contract with its pilots); this outsourcing either goes to an owned subsidiary where they can (with a bit of luck) keep the unions in check, or it's put out to bid by independent companies (e.g. SkyWest).
When these regionals serve the same airports as mainline planes, the fares are identical. However, the regionals often serve smaller airports in areas where there is little or no competition and the fares can range from high to totally outrageous.
The wages for new regional pilots are unbelievably low. I was only slightly relieved a few years ago when the starting wages for Mesaba (not yet owned by NWA) 1st officers were raised above those of WalMart greeters.