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Flying Blind: Deregulation reconsidered

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You know, the UAW made out like gangbusters, really. Just think if the ATSB was used to sort out the auto business? We could buy Chevys at Hyundai prices. US autoworkers build very expesive, marginal cars and the govt supports that. Nothing has gotten safer, more reliable, grown more, AND gotten cheaper than airline flying and airline workers can't catch a break. Really sucks.
 
Life was good for a few pilots under regulation. There are probably 3-4 times as many pilot’s jobs in 2005 as there was in 1977. Back in reg time it was about 90% military that went to the majors. Dereg opened up a lot of airline job to non-military pilots. To return to regulation would raise ticket prices, reduce the number of passengers, and therefore reduce the number of pilots needed. BTW SWA the low cost provider has near the top wages, this was done under de-reg. Flying is still a great way to make a living, pilots are not doctor's, if you want to be treated like a doctor finish med school, pilots are not wall street CEO's, if you want ot be a wall street CEO, get into one the top 10 MBA's school. You are pilot you fly airplanes, if you like doing that you are probably happy. If not you are in the wrong line of work.

You got that right. The lack of education (formal or otherwise) within the regional pilot ranks is astonishing. Actually an embarrassment.
 
Really?

Spoken like a true management stooge :puke:
So a flying management job such as Director of Standards is a management stooge? A guy who made less money than his line biddies with the same date of hire? A guy who likes flying airplanes and thinks this is a great way to make a living. Is that the guy you were talking about? BTW still livin the dream
 
No college degree?

You got that right. The lack of education (formal or otherwise) within the regional pilot ranks is astonishing. Actually an embarrassment.
So this thread is really about no college degree? That a degree is not required to be able to fly an airplane? Do we need to go there?
 
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It's called an AIRLINE, not a battered pilots' shelter

. Flying is still a great way to make a living, pilots are not doctor's, if you want to be treated like a doctor finish med school, pilots are not wall street CEO's, if you want ot be a wall street CEO, get into one the top 10 MBA's school. You are pilot you fly airplanes, if you like doing that you are probably happy. If not you are in the wrong line of work.


YIP, if you haven't noticed, it's not such a great way to make a living anymore . . . . working more weekends and holidays carting the unwashed flatfooted leisure travelers on crappy schedules, with shorter turns, longer days, shorter layovers and 1980's payscales, not adjusted for inflation, you can have it, pal.

You and I have went round and round on this for years. There is no reason . . . . again, NO REASON that pilots can't be paid the same sort of wages they were during regulation, adjusted for inflation. . . . .

Pilot Pay is about 6% of the total operating costs of that airplane. You could give every pilot on the property a 50% raise, and it would raise their costs about 3% per flight hour. or a dollar a ticket.

Why, in your opinion, shouldn't pilots make two or three hundred thousand dollars a year? Because you don't think that you're worth it! And you don't think your fellow pilots are worth it, which is why you're in management at a shelter for battered pilots.
 
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Ok...gotta put my two cents into this one...

First of all, most pilots have truly "paid their dues" in this industry. Spent Tens or Hundreds of Thousands of dollars to get all their ratings to first get...

1.) A 15 dollar an hour CFI job (maybe) making barely enough to feed themselves (or they are living at home) Average time 2 years.

2.) A regional job making SLIGHT more (often less!!!) than the CFI job and stuck in the right seat for years.

3.) If they are lucky enough to get to the majors (BIG IF) make good money for a while and face a first, second or third furlough or even better the liquidation of their airline.

I wont go in to the whole degree thing. Ive flown with college pilots who were idiots and non degree pilots who were brilliant, so there is NO hard and fast rule.

Lastly, we ARE like Doctors and Lawyers..the public, at least on the exterior, holds us in the same regard. We fly multi-million dollar aircarft with 100s of peoples lives in our hand, can be fired over one mistake that could be deadly and have to know literally THOUSANDS of pages of information and regulations (that change by the day BTW). Yet if you leave one job you have to start at the BOTTOM of the next one.

Doctors spend alot of money to get their degree as well and have a few years residency that obviously is tough, but once they get to that next level the sky is the limit. They have insurance to shield them from liablity (albeit expensive) and they can move ANYWHERE in their profession for the same OR HIGHER pay. Same goes for Lawyers. How we can NOT be thought of in the same compay.

Above all we ARE professionals and should be treated and paid as such!
 
Have an answer?

Ok...gotta put my two cents into this one...

Above all we ARE professionals and should be treated and paid as such!
Agreed, but how do you do it in a free market place where the consumer determines how much money a company will be able to make?
 

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