At first I was interested by these articles. Now I find myself annoyed. Not just with Horizon, but the regional industry as a whole. Many guys have entered the industry knowing they will be underpaid, undervalued and at times overworked as they barely see their families while trying to work their way up the ladder. Some of those guys point fingers at new hires, saying we are so lucky to have it so easy. I get it, rates were extremely lower in the past. In all honesty, it was their choice to fly a plane for 20k a year. They made it work, and are now making much more as captains at regionals or FO's at mainline. That still doesn't make being underpaid or undervalued right..
The truth is, like or not the "millennial" generation sees that as a sore. Whether you agree or not through personal experience or bias, it's true. Flight schools are struggling to find people, aside from Timmy whose daddy pays for the bill or sally who has an inheritance, not many can afford 60k in training for a 35-40k job. I was the youngest guy in my class, I'm 29. The next closest was someone who was married to a WN pilot. That says something, only those who can afford the job will take it.
Regionals now advertise you can make 60 plus first year. That includes per diem, travel benefits and a heavily taxed bonus, we can all agree that is pretty much false advertisement. Per diem is a tax free allowance one gets as that is their way to afford food on the road. Aside from endeavor, the money train stops after that until upgrade. Which some airlines are selling as well, but those who think it's a great idea to upgrade 18 months in a jet flying in the system forget that comes with a lot of responsibility as well. It scares me knowing that a flight from LGA to DFW may be under the superior supervision of a dude who as only seen one winter cycle, or one thunderstorm season.
Not 100 percent sure what I'm getting at here, other than venting what the current management deems a bad situation. They created it, heck 10 years ago guys were paying to sit right seat. Word got out about it, now bright and capable people choose other careers because they don't want to make 35k a year living in dads basement because rent rates in most bases will crush them financially considering the debt they have. 10-15 years ago, 35k may work, but with the crazy boost in CoL it doesn't work these days. Unless you have help, who wants that while having a job that you can potentially lose due to a bad day a recurrent, or a high blood pressure reading on a medical Exam by an AME. I always hear and see people tell new prospects to plan for a backup, get a degree in something other than aviation. Why is that? Because you can lose a career very easily as a pilot. Almost makes the crazy cost to get the hours not worth it, I have many friends who feel that way and now are engineers, real estate agents, hell even just bar tenders. These are all friends I met who shared the enthusiasm of being a pilot in our intro to aviation class 5 years ago. They decided the reward was not worth the risk, and moved on. Something has to give...
Horizon may be the first 121 carrier to feel the pinch due to management / labor issues, but this won't be the end of it. Even airlines like SkyWest will have issues, once the masses realize the lack in pay to sit Reserve in SFO or LAX will be hard on their wallets.
Paint me a pessimist, but I like to think of my viewpoint as a realist. You can only dog your labor group so long before change will happen, which is proving to be true at this moment. I am proud to be where I'm at, and love what I do. But the truth is, not many people this day and age will choose that high of being a pilot over their financial comfort.
