Hypothetical - Offshoring Pilots

[AGuyThatFlys]

A fellow CFI is a career-changer: He got laid-off at from his IT job. Literally trained his replacements and watched his job migrate to India.

I started wondering if airline pilot jobs could be offshored as well. What if international flights were flown exclusively by foreign pilots living in a country where they can live like kings on $17K/year--or less? What if management could figure out a way to get the same pilots to fly domestic U.S. flights?

Is there some kind of law or work rule that makes this impossible?

Here's an apocalyptic scenario we devised:

Contract talks stall at Big Freakin' Airline and the pilots strike. Management has an ace up their sleeve. Since the last contract agreement, they've been running an ab-initio program training the elites of some third world country to fly. They bring in offshore pilots who'll work happily for 1/10 of the pay. At first, the there's a public backlash--good paying American jobs going to foreigners. But, Big Freakin' Airline is able to slash fares and make good profits. In fact, really good profits. The airline's stock skyrockets. Investors are happy, the flying public is happy with really cheap tickets, and there's no compromise in safety (hey, these guys were trained in the U.S. and meet Big Freakin' Airline's stringent operations standards).

The rest of the industry is not idly sitting by. Now, negotiations for Not-Quite-As-Big Airline come up and they're threatening to do the same to their pilots unless they make wage concessions *and* accept furloughs. This airline has been losing market share and money, and are going to go bankrupt because Big Freakin' Airline has been taking all their business, thanks to their really cheap fares.

Repeat for the no. 3 and 4 airlines. ALPA is now s****ing in their collective pants.

Somebody tell me the flaw in this scenario. I think it's labor law. Or it might be too expensive to fly your crew in from overseas, then send them back home after a couple of weeks of flying trips.

AGTF

 

[FoxHunter]

Somebody tell me the flaw in this scenario. I think it's labor law. Or it might be too expensive to fly your crew in from overseas, then send them back home after a couple of weeks of flying trips.

AGTF

The first thing is that to fly domestic flights in the USA the foreign national would have to hold a Green Card. Now I guess it would be possible for an airline to establish a foreign base such as Shanghai, or Mumbai. The problem is that there is a real shortage of experienced pilots in most of these countries. I guess they could offer huge pay package to Air India pilots, but I have a feeling that would not go down well with the Indian government. Now you could hire pilots in Europe, but then with all their rules, and unions, cost of living it would be less expensive to just hire inexpensive Americans. No your scenario is filled with flaws.

 

[typhoonpilot]

The fact is that this started happening in the expat pilot market years ago. Previously foreign airlines that couldn't find enough of their own countrymen to fly their national carrier's planes would contract for mostly western world pilots, i.e U.S., Europe, and the Aussies/Kiwi bunch. These pilots commanded a fairly high salary. Then airlines like EVA in Taiwan found that they could get South Americans/Eastern Europeans to work for half the pay and who were quite happy to do so since it was still a pay raise for them. As Russia, Eastern Europe, India, and other places have many pilots looking for better wages this trend has continued. You see good airlines like Singapore, who used to have a decent pay package, resorting to hiring mostly from the Sub-Continent. This trend is very likely to continue until we end up with a new, and much lower, average worldwide salary.

Typhoonpilot

 

[typhoonpilot]

Now I guess it would be possible for an airline to establish a foreign base such as Shanghai, or Mumbai. The problem is that there is a real shortage of experienced pilots in most of these countries. I guess they could offer huge pay package to Air India pilots, but I have a feeling that would not go down well with the Indian government.

Not true of India. There are quite few experienced pilots in India flying for the second tier airlines like Sahara and Jet Airways that would look for jobs if the pay and lifestyle are better. These are the guys that Singapore is targeting. India has over a billion people and a middle class approaching 300 million. They have a large number of aspiring pilots and a British based education system that lends itself well to turing out some pretty good pilots. While it is true that Air India was looking for some short term B747 contract captains a while back, this is an anomoly and not to be mistaken for a shortage of qualified pilots to help fill the expat ranks.
Fortunately for us China is a different story and they do have a shortage of qualified guys right now. That situation will self correct in time. Their typical captain makes $1000.00 per month so you can be they will start looking overseas if and when they can.

Typhoonpilot

 

[sky37d]

One Flaw, is that they can live comfortably on 17K in other countries, however, not in this one. So if they fly here, they will live here, and want more money.