satchip

The MPL is the ATA's #1 priority. When they look at the retirement numbers and the money they are going to have to spend to replace all those guys you can bet there will be some very heavy duty lobbying done to allow it. All they have to do is say they will have to raise fares to cover the costs of a "pilot shortage".

We don't control who becomes a pilot or who is qualified to fly 121. The government does.

RockyBoy

I flew with two fNWA guys last month that are planning on pulling the cord next year. Both former military with military retirements. They said it is about breakeven on narrowbody pay to stay past 62.5 if you have a military retirement with healthcare options.

I've only flown with one guy who wished he could work until he was 70 (serious ) other than that most guys really want out and as soon as it makes financial sense to them, I think they'll be gone before 65.

FmrFreightDog

Maybe I'm missing the sarcasm in your post but.. Seriously???

The public doesn't care one bit about the low time pilots at the regional level. Most of them don't even know the difference. And as much as the average American says he "hates outsourcing", he would much rather have (fill in the blank) call center in Bangalore than shell out more cash for a service provided.

The public is not interested in the decline of the piloting profession... period. ALPA certainly didn't help matters by refusing to bring the low time issue front and center after the Colgan accident.

RockyBoy

It's going to be interesting to see how it unfolds over the next 15 years. My limited economics knowledge tells me we should actually benefit from less supply if played correctly by ALPA.

I think we can deal with the MPL and low time guys getting hired at Delta, the biggest threat IMO is how these JV's are structured and what protections we have in who operates what flights. If Delta can't find pilots then we may see no growth while Air France grows by 20%. If we think it's bad seeing domestic flying going to DCI, wait until we see widebody flying going to a JV partner. Not sure how well ALPA is going to do in this arena given their track record over the last decade with DCI. In fact with ALPA/IFALPA representing pilot groups of airlines involved in JV's aren't they setting themselves up for another RJCD type scenario where they represent Delta and AirFrance/KLM. How do you represent both and protect jobs for both when they are involved in a JV with the potential of one group to gain more jobs than the other?

In 20 years we might all be wishing that foreign ownership rules in the U.S. were lifted and SkyTeam could be one big airline with one pilot seniority list and bases around the world.

Pineapple Guy

Out of those 194, 109 of them were PRIPs.

acl65pilot

That my friend is the end game, never forget it.

MoonShot

I just flew with a FNW pilot and asked him about this. He used to be on the 747-400 and flew with all of the senior guys. Anyways, he indicated that the red book / green book hatred runs pretty deep. I guess that the green book guys are just getting on the 747 (or within the last few years) and are staying around (despite almost working for free because of their retirements) hoping to block the red book guys off the 747 until the DL/NW fences fall in four years so that the former Delta guys can bid the airplane and keep the old red book guys out of it.

At least that's how he explained it. Nothing like working for free just out of spite.

RockyBoy

Thanks PG. I figured out there were 215 total but didn't know how many were in 2009 and 2010.

acl65pilot

About 20 or so backed out of the PRIP after it closed.

nwaf16dude

Sadly, I would not be surprised if that were true.