Why do they keep hiring them then? from what friends of mine that are captains there (these are not regional guys and a few of them are not from the U.S.) tell me is that the pass rate is pretty good with former regional guys, so if these guys are passing their training and getting certified on the line within the same program that everyone else, one has to wonder what is behind this "branding" is it attitude? resentment because they are perceived to have had it easy in their careers? is it airmanship? and if it is, how come they are passing training? Or is it plain old anti American attitude?
For what I have experienced working abroad (this is not my first venture into the international jobs market) is that most of the people in charge of interviewing and selecting pilots in airlines outside of the U.S. are not even aware of the whole "mainline vs. regional" pilots none sense, so one has to wonder if this stigma wasn't planted into the EK culture by the U.S. pilots themselves.
They keep hiring them because of supply/demand and the fact that recruiting does the hiring, not the training department. While I would not go so far to say that it is anti-american attitude, some here believe that is fine to jump from a cessna into a B-737 or A-320 and sometimes a B747 at BA or Lufthansa (and other airlines) with 300-500 hours when it suits their career progression, but for some reason it is not fine for a US guy to jump from an RJ to a B-777 cockpit with 5-15 years of actual line flying experience, pilot in command experience, and thousands of flight hours. They make it purposely more difficult by riding the US guys harder during training and grading them more toughly.
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