More Bad News

[ QUOTE ]
The fact that Mesa's TA pays their 70-seat CRJ captains about the same as our 50-seat guys doesn't help matters.


[/ QUOTE ]

I'm not trying to argue here, but Mesa has always been at the bottom of the barrel when paying their pilots. At Mesa, a 6-year jet captain is now finally making $100K a year, which is pretty good for those guys. Although the TA does suck really bad for the BE 1900 guys. But like I said, it has always sucked for those guys. The new TA didn't give anybody a pay cut, which is being implied.

Now airline managements across the country are coming along and saying, well guys, Mesa's TA sucks and they are going to take all of the business if you don't give us concessions - that's BS - they're using Mesa as a scapegoat and a lot of pilots are slurping the bs up.
The fact of the matter is that Mesa can barely (if even) get financing for the jets they have on order as it stands w/ the US Air jets for jobs agreement (75 or so jets). In order to pick up the small amount of flying out of Denver from United, they had to move all of their Dash-8's out of Florida (they couldn't even finance new ones). They aren't going to go and "steel" all of the flying around the country like the different rj management types are pushing.
Just my thoughts.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Now airline managements across the country are coming along and saying, well guys, Mesa's TA sucks and they are going to take all of the business if you don't give us concessions - that's BS - they're using Mesa as a scapegoat and a lot of pilots are slurping the bs up.


[/ QUOTE ]

I think you hit the nail on the head. A guy on the ALPA boards had some statistics (I don't know how valid they are, since I don't know his source) that purported to show that if pilots flew for free, the cost per mile would be affected by less that $1.00. That may be a stretch, but there are an awful lot of fixed costs that won't be affected by pay cuts.
=======
To all the future airline pilots out there, I just want to say don't let the negativity get to you. This is a rough time, but it won't last forever. The industry has been in bad shape before and it has rebounded before. If one, or even a few, airlines fail, others will take their place. There will be jobs in the future.

If you truly want to to fly, then now is the time to prepare yourself for the rebound. Things should look pretty good to you, because a lot of "fair weather flyers" have decided to chuck their pilot career and go sell cars or whatever. That means that you will be ready to be hired in the rebound and they won't.

If you want it bad enough, you'll find a way. Now get out there and get those ratings!
laugh.gif
 
Rausda,
This is the best time to build your hours as a CFI or flying yourself for pleasure. If CFIing is not getting you enough money, work two jobs. Here in Silicon Valley where i am from, two jobs isn't even an option.

In 2001 just before 9/11 a few months before i graduated from SJSU, i thought i would just jump into the right seat of the airline. Why not- half of the my friends who graduated prior to me were getting hired by ACA, Skywest, and even Corporate. I thought i would do the same but unfortunately, i am still an Operation agent, ramp agent whatever they call it these days for Delta! This the down time and use it to your advantage to build hours.There is no need to be angry towards the airline pilots who are encouraging you-believe me half of them have gone thru a lot to get to where they are at now!
wink.gif
 
Hey N77j, you working the DL ramp in SJC? I'll be flying 1462 SJC-SLC May 3!
 
Yeah Doug- i am working that day but i am at the night shift. I am assuming you are flying into SFO or OAK or you must be arriving on the 12:00pm arrival to SJC the night before.And BTW- the MD-90 has a cool cockpit and in my opinion they are well designed ergonomically(only the cocpit portion) than the B738. Anyways- i might see you one of these days since all our 738 services to SLC has been replced by the MD-90's.
 
We're flying into SFO the day previous and departing SJC the next morning.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top