Flagship_dxer
Penske Material
A big reason why the big four saw huge increases was that upper management needed to have a unified, integrated airline after mergers. This put dispatchers in the position of being able to demand higher wages because they basically had the upper hand. Management could have put their foot down and said no way but they would then have to continue running two different airlines. Dispatch contracts and the structure of the dispatch group while fairly similar have different nuances between airlines. An equipment swap is much more complex when both work groups are separate as that usually means a cancel and extra section to do it in order to abide by the two different contracts.
Also, the merged major airlines were in a contest to show the others whose pecker was biggest. So when one gave an increase, so did the other. It was a way to show everyone that they weren't the old bankrupt airlines anymore and were better than the other merged majors.
So far the regionals have not had such pressure. The merged regionals like 9E and EV were in competition to see who could be the biggest cheapskates post merger to look good to their mainline partners. Thus there was no pressure or desire to increase pay. The only reason regional pilots have seen an increase is because few pilots want to work for pennies and they were forced to raise pay to attract enough pilots.
Also, the merged major airlines were in a contest to show the others whose pecker was biggest. So when one gave an increase, so did the other. It was a way to show everyone that they weren't the old bankrupt airlines anymore and were better than the other merged majors.
So far the regionals have not had such pressure. The merged regionals like 9E and EV were in competition to see who could be the biggest cheapskates post merger to look good to their mainline partners. Thus there was no pressure or desire to increase pay. The only reason regional pilots have seen an increase is because few pilots want to work for pennies and they were forced to raise pay to attract enough pilots.