Originally Posted by
Science Goy
Supply and demand. If there's indeed a 777 pilot shortage, then these salaries and benefits make perfect sense.
There is no shortage of pilots. There's a temporary shortage of pilots qualified on the 777 at AA because of a very large number of retirements over the past several months that exceeds AA's ability to immediately train and replace. But rest assured that it is temporary and will be solved prior to next summer's busy flying season. There's no shortage of pilots wanting to move up to AA's 777s at current pay rates - there just isn't enough training capacity to immediately train hundreds of pilots.
Retirements over the past three months have run at about 10 times the typical rate.