buddies8

and where do you think mainline pilots will fall, in the same boat.

Trufactor7

Any update on this question about which bases are available to new hires or which bases the last class was assigned ?

What

Bases available vary per class and often change dependent on company requirements. New York is the junior base but classes have seen DFW and MIA. Don't let the class ahead of you be a dictator for things to come because that often is not the case.

I would plan on NY and as things continue to move you could move to another base before completing training or shortly there after. The recruiters have an idea of what the class will be offering but it often changes the day of due to attrition, bids, upgrades and other factors.

Cubdriver

And it's the past as well from what I understand. The regional airline industry has always been a highly competitive business, it was created in fact to undersell legacy high cost operations, and it hinges on the availability of low cost pilots to staff the aircraft. However, low wages has had only a minor effect on the number of pilots willing to do the flying work during the previous two decades. Pilots still show up at interviews with impeccable resumes in decent numbers for a job they know only pays $15-25k to start. It has been this way for many years with no change in sight. It has had minor effect on the number of interested applicants, which is why wages cannot rise. In fact, wages are probably sliding with the cost of living increase.

I used to think perhaps we will see a sharp drop in pilot supply due to the effect of distribution of information via websites like APC, JC and some others, but it has been quite a few years with no substantial change. It would appear that even knowing it's a bad deal with wages at a mere fraction of what they should be for the training, experience, inconvenience, and responsibility involved, new flight students are still lining up for a chance to do it.

eaglefly

The fact is the pipeline of entry level pilots is at an all time low and the pool feeding it is even lower. A large wave of legacy and LCC hiring is approaching and it takes time to fill that pool.

....and no offense, but I still think this post comes from not just from a wide-eyed young airline hopeful, but someone with a position and possibly an agenda.

bozobigtop

In the past commuter/regional airlines never really compete against each other because many were serving a purpose at the time. Providing air service to cities whereas many of us living in large cities in the US would never set foot in. Many of these carriers didn't have the type of codesharing we see today. The codesharing applicability makes outsourcing easy for the powers that being the legacy carriers. Fight the power!

Cubdriver

No Eagle, I am just pilot like you, assuming that's what you are. I have no agenda. Here a few stats. Is there a decline in the number of Commercial or ATPs? Not according to the GAMA stats page. See the numbers. As far as the pipeline goes, that may change but this is pretty recent data on who is showing up at interviews, so far no change at all worth mentioning.





We can clearly see lots of pilots are there who can staff the regional airplanes and drive labor values down.

mojo6911

I would be willing to guess a large majority of those Commercials are foreigners. How do they determine they are active?

Bozo the pilot

Yea thats the tell-tale info. Those numbers say nothing about activity-very good point mojo

V1 ROT8

Uhh, your numbers seems to support eaglefly. The total number of ATPs and Commercial Pilots has been in a consistent, albeit slow, decline over the past five years. Anyone who wants a job right now should be able to get one, assuming they don't have any major blemishes on their record. Further, if the numbers you provide are enough to keep all airlines flying right now, what happens when 30,000 or so begin to retire between now and around 2025?