Airline Pilot profession losing it's luster

[SWA/FO]

$50k a year

Is that what everyone wants to make? I can have that in 3.5 months of work.

 

[pilotyip]

Is that what everyone wants to make? I can have that in 3.5 months of work.

but once upon a time you were happy to get a job flying a beat up old DA-20 for $24K/yr.

 

[turbodriver]

FAA Aviation Safety Inspector beats every one of your criticisms and pays almost double your figure to start.

Yeah, and it'd be nice if they actually hired some.

 

[Dan Roman]

I am going to chime in here. I know many have bashed me for my posts, but at this point I do not care whether you do or don't.
What has happened to our profession? We destroyed it. WE ARE OUR OWN WORST ENEMIES!!! We stab each other in the back and show zero unity. "Wear your hats for unity." Oh come on, give me a break!!!! We have taken flying from other carriers and just shrugged our shoulders when asked about the pilots we just put out of work. Why should we care? We are getting our precious growth and more money.
Meanwhile, managment laughs at us and has NO RESPECT for us. Why? Every bankruptcy, and every oppurtunity for growth, management comes running to us, and as stupid and as desperate we are, we agree to concessions for that precious little growth. I make $40K-$45K annually as a regional airline CRJ FO. Yet, my management thinks I am overpaid. Yet they tried to extract paycuts, but thankfully our union finally showed a set and told the company no.
Meanwhile, we as pilots, have destroyed the profession. We have taken jobs at the regional level and at upstarts for subpar wages. We are willing to make very little to try and hope we can advance our careers. In the 1990's there was no shortage of pilots willing to shell out $10,000 for training at a regional which paid $15K. Instead many go and deliver pizzas and work at Costco and Lowe's on thier days off and think nothing of it. I once asked a pilot why and he said, if he didn't enjoy it so much, he wouldn't be doing that. Yet, meanwhile, he is dragging down the profession. Every bankruptcy, the airlines come running to the pilots and ask the pilots to take concessions to finance them and help them after their own inefficiencies and business blunders got them there in the first place, and what do pilots get in return for financing the company? Managment still thinking we are overpaid. When The Eastwinds, Skybuses and Air Souths started flying, they were paying Captains on the 737's and Airbus a whopping $60K a year and sad but true, pilots flocked to these jobs. During the early 2000's, management used bankruptcies to get pilots to finance their growth and the airlines made record profits. when pilots asked about their return on the investment, management laughed at them. At the regional level, contracts were re-worked through bankrupcy courts and yet pilots did not hesitate to take concessions for growth. Did any care that one large regional carrier went away? Did they care long time UAL Express carriers Air Wisconsin or ACA were going to either switch partnerships or disappear, did anyone ever stop to think about those lives that got upended? Of course not. Why? Becasue we are our own worst enemies. We have shown over and over we are pushovers and we'd sell our own parents.
I was once told by an airline executive, they can offer $400 a week for a direct left seat hire in a 737 or an Airbus and tell an applicant they would have to perform fellatio, and there still would be no shortage of applicants. What is so sad? This executive is right!
Until EVERY pilot takes a stand, grows a set and stands up to management and says no to any further concessions, and starts flying the contract and quits waiving their contractual rights, which is not their's to wave in the first place, things will never change. Then maybe management will be forced to re-think their business mottos and treat us like assets and not liabilities.
So, let the basing begin, however, I will not repsond
venting is over

I blame the weakening of scope by the mainline carriers much more than I blame someone out of college taking an entry level flying job. It use to be you could get a job flying a small turbo prop commuter for a few years and likely move on to a high paying "Airline" job". Than the commuters became regionals and took over the flying that was formally done by PSA, Peidmont, Southern, Allegheny, Air CAL, Ozark, Frontier, Hughes AirWest, etc. They were all good paying career jobs. Now it's done by Regionals that bid against each other for flying and do not pay very good wages.

I am not an ALPA basher, but we dropped the ball on that one big time. I don't think anyone realized how much of the flying in the USA was being transformed from good paying career type flying to time building wages type flying.

 

[pilotyip]

Adam Smith

I blame the weakening of scope by the mainline carriers much more than I blame someone out of college taking an entry level flying job. It use to be you could get a job flying a small turbo prop commuter for a few years and likely move on to a high paying "Airline" job". Than the commuters became regionals and took over the flying that was formally done by PSA, Peidmont, Southern, Allegheny, Air CAL, Ozark, Frontier, Hughes AirWest, etc. They were all good paying career jobs. Now it's done by Regionals that bid against each other for flying and do not pay very good wages.

I am not an ALPA basher, but we dropped the ball on that one big time. I don't think anyone realized how much of the flying in the USA was being transformed from good paying career type flying to time building wages type flying.

Adam Smith rules, Even though they may have been shortsighted decisions at the time. Like AAL saying no RJ's on our feeder routes. Adam Smith said in 1780 "That all decisions were made in one's own best economic interest” So those decisions by mainline guys were made in what they thought would be their own best self-interest. They were unaware of the unintended consequences.

 

[Dan Roman]

Adam Smith rules, Even though they may have been shortsighted decisions at the time. Like AAL saying no RJ's on our feeder routes. Adam Smith said in 1780 "That all decisions were made in one's own best economic interest” So those decisions by mainline guys were made in what they thought would be their own best self-interest. They were unaware of the unintended consequences.

I agree. I don't think it was made in a selfish way. I think the thinking was the more feed the mainline carriers had the more they would grow to the benefit of all (more jobs, not less). It backfired though.

 

[800Dog]

I blame the weakening of scope by the mainline carriers much more than I blame someone out of college taking an entry level flying job. It use to be you could get a job flying a small turbo prop commuter for a few years and likely move on to a high paying "Airline" job". Than the commuters became regionals and took over the flying that was formally done by PSA, Peidmont, Southern, Allegheny, Air CAL, Ozark, Frontier, Hughes AirWest, etc. They were all good paying career jobs. Now it's done by Regionals that bid against each other for flying and do not pay very good wages.

I am not an ALPA basher, but we dropped the ball on that one big time. I don't think anyone realized how much of the flying in the USA was being transformed from good paying career type flying to time building wages type flying.

Excellent post and exactly why I have voted no on every TA in my 11 years at Delta. The majority at the majors, especially my airline, either have no idea the harm they have done to the profession or simply do not care because, they have theirs.....

 

[Scope out RJ's]

but once upon a time you were happy to get a job flying a beat up old DA-20 for $24K/yr.

Yup, and he bought his present job, and you're still doing it!

 

[relief tube]

but hey, there's $39 fares. so yay.

 

[ron burgundy]

You guys are funny. Just where is there job security anyway? I also think anyone of you would have a very hard time finding a job paying over $50,000/yr and if you did you'd get so sick and tired of rush hour driving and traffic five days a week, weekly sales reports, weekly meetings, sitting at a desk with no windows all day, and no matter how well your sales were last month, the guy breathing down your neck all the time would want 10% better next month. It isn't real pretty outside of aviation either.

I'm O.K. with all of that. It's those damn TPS reports.