STILL GROUNDED

The time for that has come and past a long time ago young man. Low pay for 19 seat turbo props was only the beginning. There is no reason a Pilot should not be making a minimum of $50,000 a year regardless of aircraft size. Net jets pays over $60K for first year fo's and half of those airplanes don't break 20,000 lbs.

But I ask you this my friend. From an industry of people who are about as united as oil and water what are we to do. I find more and more people who are all for one, one for themselves. There is nothing unified about any pilot group anymore. We are a group of people who for the most part spend 16-24 hours a week locked in a box with only one other person and somehow we are to be able to bring a group of 1000-2000-5000+ pilots to the same level of thinking. WHAT DO WE DO?

Mesa is going to be one of the first to be faced with the concession question. They gave up a lot last time around due to scope and freedom, what will they give up this time. Until a group of pilots walks out the door and an airline shuts down because of it management will NEVER take us seriously. PS: don't hold your breathe to see the above scenario play out, there are too many senior pilots on the list to get a walk vote. Closest thing that I can remember was COMAIR and look where they are today, great contract, but ask them about that MCO base among other things. Not picking, but you folks stood up for yourselves.

PittsburghDude

hey i just heard that all 50 seat jets got parked because they are the "devil" of regional airlines. gosh darn we can't say we didn't see this coming... oh well i guess the hardest part about this news is for everybody to find something else to whine about...

B727DRVR

What's next, 200 passenger RJ's?

Herc will probably remember this, but in the late 1980's, the American Airlines pilots debated whether the Eagle pilots were worthy enough of being represented by the APA. There was even talk about the Eagle pilots on the AA seniority list, but they were not wanted by the AA pilots. Don't they wish that they were all together now, instead of being whipsawed against each other.

This set a precedent that held our entire industry back......... And it is proof that we must all stand together, more now than ever.

Until we collectively worry more about raising the pay of the lowest-paid RJ pilot than we do about raising the pay of the Senior B777 pilots, we as pilots collectively don't stand a chance...

The business reason for the RJ is all about pay.. And pay increases for RJ pilots needs to be our primary concern of all pilots. If not, we will soon see the 200 passenger RJ in our lifetimes.

In Unity,

B727DRVR

doug_or

No, thats not what the article said.

TonyWilliams

Airlines are growing, just not necessarily in the USA. I'm going to the job fair in ATL at the end of this month, which I believe will be largely international carriers.

I agree that 76 planes will stay with contract airlines, for the very reason they got there in the first place; it's cheaper.

That will put pressure on the number crunchers for a DC-9 replacement. The lure of contracting an airline to fly 100 seats for cheap compared to what they have to pay their own crews (and actually buy / lease and maintain new planes) won't go away.

Flitestar

Dead on.

TonyWilliams

I wonder why we never hear from the major / legacy pilot groups clamoring to do ALL their company flying ?

If company XXX has a need for a 19 / 30 / 50 / 70 / 76 seat aircraft on any route, why doesn't that pilot group demand that it be done by company pilots in company planes ?

Why is there a floating (and arbitrary) line of how many seats to be flown by company pilots ?

jonnyjetprop

Don't forget that there will be jobs flying turboprops. They are more effecient than the RJ's.

tprangner

I'm not asking whether I read it wrong, I just wanna know if jobs are going away or still going to be there when planes go away. Common sense thinks that there won't be any recruitment going on for awhile once RJs start to go away.

HercDriver130

727drvr is right.... I was a card carrying member of APA Eagle.... unity... what a joke that was....

Scope caved at AA and every other carrier because the pilots looked down their collective noses at "comuters"...regionals...whatever you want to call it... they didnt want to fly small jets or BIG turboprops....they have "evolved" past aircraft that size .... and wanted more to fly them than the company would or could pay... hell AA pilots hated the F100 because they felt it was too small..and the pay as crap..... CA on the F100's made about 120000 a year in early 90's dollars... imagine that......and it wasnt enough.

round and round it goes and where it stops ....nobody knows.....