Firebird2XC
Well-Known Member
"Back in 1993 jets were still at mainline, and we had about 10,000 less RJs clogging up the system. In 1993 at ExpressJet, we just had merged four regional airlines under one certificate (Britt Airways), had a fleet of ATR-42/72s, EMB-120s, and BE-1900s. It wasn't until 1997 when we ordered 200 regional jets. Now we have 274, dropping to 230 here in the near future.
You can't compare 1993 to 2008, unless you want to acknowledge the fact that a huge amount of flying has shifted from the majors to the regionals, thereby limiting the earning potential of most pilots starting out today."
- FlyChicaga
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It's occurred to me recently that I really had to re-prioritize my goals in the airline industry. I grew up with my face pressed to countless terminal windows, with my father standing beside me helping me name all the different airplanes on the ramp. He was a pilot from the age of Regulation, a long-gone era when the government set the rates of exchange for the airlines, and as such the airlines grew very carefully, very slowly, and very profitably. I grew to share his love of flying and airplanes, and hoped for a flying career for myself one day.
It was an easy call, I told myself. It's fun, and interesting, and you can't beat the pay!
Or can you?
Management seems to think so. With the advent of the "regional" jet, and the flooding of the industry with more and more cockpits, the need to staff smaller, cheaper airplanes took full swing. While the pilot unions of the 'Legacy' Airlines were offered the smaller airplanes first, most balked at the thought of flying smaller airplanes at much smaller rates of pay. Bigger was better, said the pilots, because bigger planes mean bigger paychecks.
With that decree, they sent the "damned little jets" to the so-called Regionals. Back in the day, a regional airline really was a regional airline- it didn't span the country, or the continent. It flew primarily out of a few major cities to smaller ones, scooping up small loads of passengers and depositing them into bigger loads of their mainline partners.
Regionals were a small business, and as such most pilots accepted that small pay rates and high turnover rates made regionals a temporary place to be. As far as the aspiring professional pilot was concerned, the entire point of a regional was to "get up and get out"- i.e., to gain the credentials to get on with a major Legacy carrier and make a considerably higher wage.
Fast forward to the present. Now our airspace is glutted with "Regional Jets" that can cross an ocean and "Regional Turboprops" with jet-like performance and that carry three times the passenger load their predecessors did.
With airline managers whittling away at the pay rates of their labor groups and slowly moving more and more mainline routes to "regional" affiliates, pilots as a profession have missed the proverbial boat. Bigger planes are not better, and with the passing over of the "little jets" and their large turboprop brethren, management has successfully swelled up regional carriers underneath their mainline operations.
As such, it seems apparent that despite our best efforts to maintain an appropriate rates of pay at the top of the pilot profession and see it trickle down, we've failed. While we were busily trying to raise the roof of the house one corner at a time, airline managers have cut the floor out from under us.
It would seem that the future of growth in the airline industry is not at the top, with the traditional Legacy carriers, but in the middle, with the top end of the Regional carriers.
Therefore, we are greatly remiss if we simply assume that we can achieve comparable rates of pay at the Regional level by driving up the Legacy rates. If airline managers' actual goal is to swell the ranks at the Regional level while eventually downsizing the Legacy mainline pilot groups, neglecting the Regional pilot pay rates is a grievous error.
As such, I think new emphasis is needed to raise pay rates at the actual bottom of the airline industry. When pilot pay rates have marked ceilings but absolutely no bottom, we open ourselves to be continually, constantly undercut into oblivion. I see debates and arguments repeatedly aired about how pay at the Regional level is better than ever before, but the fact of the matter is that they have barely compensated for inflation and often completely failed to address the growth of equipment and responsibility of the industry's most junior pilots.
In days gone by, a young pilot may have spent a given period of time as a First Officer in small turboprop aircraft that could be legally operated by one pilot, the Captain. The only reason the First Officer was then required was not because the aircraft did- it was because the Federal Regulations governing airline operation required them. As such, a First Officer may often have been seen as an "extra" pilot, rather than an essential, safety-critical part of the operation. First Officer pay scales in the Regional Airlines still reflect that concept today, even when the First Officer in question is flying a jet that requires them by specification and is several times larger than a Regional airline equivalent of yesterday.
As I stated earlier, it seems likely that management's goal in growth it to grow in the middle in order to circumvent contracts and other labor-related constraints.
If growth above the regional level slows, stalls, or stops, we may find ourselves gritting out collective teeth simply hoping to make Captain at the Regional level- and being very happy with that.
Given that, we have to consider that whatever company we presently work for today may be the company we fly with for the rest of our careers.
If that's the case, I can't really see myself working for such low wages for the duties I perform daily in my job. If this is as far as I'm going, I'm going to hedge my bets. The "get up and get out" philosophy is a potential trap- and it's how management gets us to look the other way while they pay us less and less to fly larger and larger aircraft.
From here on out, I'm looking to improve my quality of life and rates of pay every step of the way.
Regardless of the size of the aircraft I fly, if where I am now is the fullest extent of my career expectations, I will not sit idly by and take what I am given. I will not let the fruits of my labors allow inept airline managers to eat steak while I scrape by on stale bread crusts.
The disparity is appalling.
Some of you may be thinking this concept is flawed, that the industry will begin upward movement again soon, that it won't matter to you- you'll get yours.
Stop and ask yourself for a moment: What if you don't?
In the course of regular operations, pilots, their crews, and their passengers literally live and die by adherence to a system that relies on checks, rechecks, backups, and backups for backups. It is through diligent adherence to these concepts and principles that commercial air travel achieves the remarkable feats of safety and reliability that it does.
Doesn't your career, your livelihood, and the means you provide for your family deserve the same diligence?
Ask yourself that question, and then ask yourself if you're really getting all your future deserves after you've broken your back ensuring the future of your company.
Consider it. That's all I ask.
You can't compare 1993 to 2008, unless you want to acknowledge the fact that a huge amount of flying has shifted from the majors to the regionals, thereby limiting the earning potential of most pilots starting out today."
- FlyChicaga
------------------------------------
It's occurred to me recently that I really had to re-prioritize my goals in the airline industry. I grew up with my face pressed to countless terminal windows, with my father standing beside me helping me name all the different airplanes on the ramp. He was a pilot from the age of Regulation, a long-gone era when the government set the rates of exchange for the airlines, and as such the airlines grew very carefully, very slowly, and very profitably. I grew to share his love of flying and airplanes, and hoped for a flying career for myself one day.
It was an easy call, I told myself. It's fun, and interesting, and you can't beat the pay!
Or can you?
Management seems to think so. With the advent of the "regional" jet, and the flooding of the industry with more and more cockpits, the need to staff smaller, cheaper airplanes took full swing. While the pilot unions of the 'Legacy' Airlines were offered the smaller airplanes first, most balked at the thought of flying smaller airplanes at much smaller rates of pay. Bigger was better, said the pilots, because bigger planes mean bigger paychecks.
With that decree, they sent the "damned little jets" to the so-called Regionals. Back in the day, a regional airline really was a regional airline- it didn't span the country, or the continent. It flew primarily out of a few major cities to smaller ones, scooping up small loads of passengers and depositing them into bigger loads of their mainline partners.
Regionals were a small business, and as such most pilots accepted that small pay rates and high turnover rates made regionals a temporary place to be. As far as the aspiring professional pilot was concerned, the entire point of a regional was to "get up and get out"- i.e., to gain the credentials to get on with a major Legacy carrier and make a considerably higher wage.
Fast forward to the present. Now our airspace is glutted with "Regional Jets" that can cross an ocean and "Regional Turboprops" with jet-like performance and that carry three times the passenger load their predecessors did.
With airline managers whittling away at the pay rates of their labor groups and slowly moving more and more mainline routes to "regional" affiliates, pilots as a profession have missed the proverbial boat. Bigger planes are not better, and with the passing over of the "little jets" and their large turboprop brethren, management has successfully swelled up regional carriers underneath their mainline operations.
As such, it seems apparent that despite our best efforts to maintain an appropriate rates of pay at the top of the pilot profession and see it trickle down, we've failed. While we were busily trying to raise the roof of the house one corner at a time, airline managers have cut the floor out from under us.
It would seem that the future of growth in the airline industry is not at the top, with the traditional Legacy carriers, but in the middle, with the top end of the Regional carriers.
Therefore, we are greatly remiss if we simply assume that we can achieve comparable rates of pay at the Regional level by driving up the Legacy rates. If airline managers' actual goal is to swell the ranks at the Regional level while eventually downsizing the Legacy mainline pilot groups, neglecting the Regional pilot pay rates is a grievous error.
As such, I think new emphasis is needed to raise pay rates at the actual bottom of the airline industry. When pilot pay rates have marked ceilings but absolutely no bottom, we open ourselves to be continually, constantly undercut into oblivion. I see debates and arguments repeatedly aired about how pay at the Regional level is better than ever before, but the fact of the matter is that they have barely compensated for inflation and often completely failed to address the growth of equipment and responsibility of the industry's most junior pilots.
In days gone by, a young pilot may have spent a given period of time as a First Officer in small turboprop aircraft that could be legally operated by one pilot, the Captain. The only reason the First Officer was then required was not because the aircraft did- it was because the Federal Regulations governing airline operation required them. As such, a First Officer may often have been seen as an "extra" pilot, rather than an essential, safety-critical part of the operation. First Officer pay scales in the Regional Airlines still reflect that concept today, even when the First Officer in question is flying a jet that requires them by specification and is several times larger than a Regional airline equivalent of yesterday.
As I stated earlier, it seems likely that management's goal in growth it to grow in the middle in order to circumvent contracts and other labor-related constraints.
If growth above the regional level slows, stalls, or stops, we may find ourselves gritting out collective teeth simply hoping to make Captain at the Regional level- and being very happy with that.
Given that, we have to consider that whatever company we presently work for today may be the company we fly with for the rest of our careers.
If that's the case, I can't really see myself working for such low wages for the duties I perform daily in my job. If this is as far as I'm going, I'm going to hedge my bets. The "get up and get out" philosophy is a potential trap- and it's how management gets us to look the other way while they pay us less and less to fly larger and larger aircraft.
From here on out, I'm looking to improve my quality of life and rates of pay every step of the way.
Regardless of the size of the aircraft I fly, if where I am now is the fullest extent of my career expectations, I will not sit idly by and take what I am given. I will not let the fruits of my labors allow inept airline managers to eat steak while I scrape by on stale bread crusts.
The disparity is appalling.
Some of you may be thinking this concept is flawed, that the industry will begin upward movement again soon, that it won't matter to you- you'll get yours.
Stop and ask yourself for a moment: What if you don't?
In the course of regular operations, pilots, their crews, and their passengers literally live and die by adherence to a system that relies on checks, rechecks, backups, and backups for backups. It is through diligent adherence to these concepts and principles that commercial air travel achieves the remarkable feats of safety and reliability that it does.
Doesn't your career, your livelihood, and the means you provide for your family deserve the same diligence?
Ask yourself that question, and then ask yourself if you're really getting all your future deserves after you've broken your back ensuring the future of your company.
Consider it. That's all I ask.