SPDBOILER

News flash...you can't. That ship has set sail. Mainline pilots have opened their scope and no one is going to put that genie back in the bottle.

laserman2431

Right. That's my point. It would be nice if we could, but, we can't.

HIREME

We may not be able to completely put the genie back, but we can limit regionals effectiveness by making it less profitable to use us. Every contract that comes up has to be a major improvement over the last one at the company. I think ASA's contract should be a benchmark for us all to shoot for. No one significantly below ASA...it should be the new average. PNCL, MESA, MESABA etc all have to come up to meet ASA. Then the leading contracts step out a little more. We cannot do it all at once, but little by little we raise our prices until we can price regionals out of expansion and move flying by economics back to mainline.
Someone will probably start a new regional, etc. if we try to do it too quickly with MESABA/PNCL/MESA type contract going from bottom to the top, but if we turn up the heat slowly, I think we can do it.

acl65pilot

Well, that is actually happening right now. Too many people have decided to make the regionals their career. What this has done is make the regionals quite expensive. If this continues you will continue to see the demand for their party operators diminish.

Just watch what happens over the next three years and then the next 11. It is in effect why I would never make a regional my destination.

downinthegroove

If you want to make a change do something. This is a backstabbing dying industry. We are a educated group destroyed by what was...should have been...should be stories.

Change is ridding ourselves of ALPA. No associations. Give me a union. One that will buck the trend. I've had several jobs, from Teamsters in a feed mill to military to the facade that is ALPA.

If you want this industry to return, action will be required. Prater is a joke. He cowers before DAL and knows the dynasty can crumble. Our leadership are not workers. They poorly defend us and wow, now for almost a decade we have been buying the let's take it back mantra. We are now part of an association run by buddy's, homer's and jokers. Richard Anderson is pulling all of our strings....But we know better....Right.

If we are serious, we would really "Take it back."

Justdoinmyjob

The last thing the DCI pilots want is for the Delta pilots to form thier own union. If that happened then you would see the Delta pilots treat you much like the AA pilots treat Eagle. With ALPA, at least you still have DFR.

bored

Acl65pilot - would you get off this blame band wagon of "too many people making regionals their career." There are TONS of us who were unable to take advantage of the last mainline hiring boom. Not everyone was as lucky as you to time it perfectly.

For some guys it just wouldn't be wise to make the move, wether they are too old or too comfortable. Some regional carriers can actually be comfortable places to retire. I'm not saying I want to, or the majority want to, but there are a few whose mainline flying aspirations died a long time ago. Or for me personally, couldn't take advantage because I was an FO for 6 years, building TONS of invaluable SIC time.

DeltaPaySoon

Exactly what I said a year plus ago. The investors that got "bullied" to start up, and invest, in the ridiculous number of regionals was a bad bill of goods after mainline bankruptcy was complete. We are seeing it all over now.

Contraction takes time but the regionals are shrinking.

Wheels up

It's important to note that AA pilots and AE pilots are represented by two different and distinct unions. There is almost no contractural interface between the two anymore (a minor flowthu provision still being alive to some extent). The APA has zero obligation to AE pilots and vice versa.

USMC3197

I agree... I can see how a 40yr old regional captain right now can't make the move. By the time the next boom is comes he will have to start all over again in his mid 40's to climb a whole new seniority list. Some of the DL guys told me they have been on reserve for up to 10yrs. Can't blame them for not leaving... Especially if he/she has kids. I consider myself lucky that I am only 30 during this stagnate time.