Whidbey

Interesting you bring up Medical Doctors. In fact, a very similar sort of "outsourcing" is going on in the medical profession. The candidates who do not have the grades or resume to make it into MD programs now attend D.O. (Doctor of Osteopathy) schools.

So, a whole new path to a medical profession has exploded in the last 15 with a number of similar effects. While it's harder to get a more prestigious Residency (Surgery, etc.) as a D.O., they have flooded the family practice ranks and have substantially degraded the pay in the family practice market, drastically reducing the income. Yeah, they can't put M.D. behind their name, and in most case they are not the quality candidates their M.D. brothers are, nor did they make it through such a rigorous weeding process... but they get to say they're doctors!

A secondary effect these guys have on the industry- D.O. Schools are substantially more expensive than M.D. schools, which increases the load of their student loans. When they finish training, many of them have to take the first job that comes get cracking on those loans, regardless of pay, etc.

In fact, some jobs once done by medical doctors have been completely undercut. If you get an operation, instead of an Anesthesiologist, you'll likely be put under by a Nurse Anesthetist. A whole career path that used to belong to Medical Doctors is now on it's way to being totally outsourced to less trained and lower paid people who are willing to work for less.

Anyone else see any parallels?

SkyHigh

The big picture is that the legacy airlines have been in full retreat over the last 30 years. Giants have been ground into dust in that time. One time stalwarts of the industry are merged and shrunk on a continuing basis.

All the while the regionals and low cost carriers take over the industry. Anyone who has 30 or more years ahead of themselves in this profession should have grave concerns about their future.

So far nothing real is on the horizon to suggest that wages or conditions will get better. Airlines have proved that they will go to great lengths to keep downward pressure on wages. It is the only way to get ahead in the modern corporate world. The company with the lowest costs will win.

Skyhigh

SkyHigh

I like this web site:

What Flying Was Like In The 1960s

It chronicles the glory of airlines past and shows how far we are from the good old days. The author concludes that ticket prices were four times more expensive in the 1960's than today. The only way to significantly raise pilot wages is to bring up ticket prices.

Even a slight increase in prices has a massive effect upon demand. Flying is barely tolerable as it is with TSA and all the hassles that go with flying. In addition there is a lot of competition that the airlines did not have in the 1960s; teleconferencing, the national highway system and a failing economy. Double ticket prices and I believe that passengers will disappear.

Our industry is propagated by $69 ticket prices. An entire generation of Americans are use to jumping on a jet to fly 1000 miles to attend a dinner party. All that will go away with a significant increase in prices and so will go most of the job market for pilots.

Skip the flight to grandmas house and buy her an XBox with Kinect instead. They you can visit all you want for free.

Syhigh

Hacker15e

I find that Flying The Line Vol II is a good opposing view to the idea that the 60s and 70s were the "glory days" (or something that we want to go back to).

Looks to me like it's always been a completely screwed up career, and the flavor just changes by decade.

TonyWilliams

Which is why there will be plenty of guys flying overseas. The US doesn't lead in ANY airline pilot category. Not pay, not work rules, not even soft issues like prestige.

The only real benefit in the US is commuting to your job in another state.

80ktsClamp

138k is a conservative mixed average, thus you are wrong at least about delta. On 4th year pay and not flying much extra I made 105 last year. Our upper tier captains typically make in the 180s or so. One guy made over 35k in december alone.

80ktsClamp

Not willing to take a paycut for one year for many years of much higher pay? You must be a good pilot because your logic makes for terrible investing...

captnmajic

Good points Whidbey.

One parallel that I see between doctors and pilots is they both have allowed other groups to control their pricing and wages. In both cases, it's the bean counters I'm referring to. One has to only look at the river pilots on the Mississippi River out of New Orleans Crescent River Port Pilots > Home as an example of a work group that maintains extremely rigid, tight control over their industry. In the case of the river pilots, not only do they maintain tight control over their wages, but they also tightly control entry into the field as well. Last time I checked (almost 10 years ago) a river pilot there was taking home roughly $350,000/year for a week on, followed by a week off.

CANAM

There will NEVER be a shortage of QUALIFIED candidates for WELL PAYING jobs. I have yet to hear of a shortage of trial lawyers

Boomer

Swiss Frank? Never heard of him.