Regionals can't find pilots?

[tuna pimp]

Flightsafety academy is doing very poorly for enrollment at the moment.

You know this for sure? Do you know what is driving it?

Is it that people wiseing up to the fact that they can get on at a regional with around 1000/100 and can do so with saving tens of thousands of dollars in training by going to a place like All ATPs?

 

[Tyro]

Funny, a while back a kid came up to me at an airport to tell me exactly the same thing. He was on his way to college to get an aviation degree. He was gonna get his ratings and time while going to college. He was then gonna work at a regional for about one or two years and then go to Airtran. Needless to say, I did my part to open his eyes. I pretty much told him that at the very least he had to get a degree in something other than aviation. That in today's maket there's a good chance he'll never see a 717 or better. And lastly, to consider going to law school or medical school instead.

This is fascinating. See, I did the conservative, less-interesting (to me), non-aviation long-school route thing. Got the degrees, got the training, lots of very hard work, and it "paid off" - financially, job-security wise, professionally, socially. Paid off in every way society seems to think is important. Well guess what? Looking at chucking it all for a front seat on a 1900D. I think I'd be happy there. And am old enough to be no dreamer anymore.

My hat is off to all of you, who had the courage to do what you really wanted to, in the first place.

 

[turbinewhiner]

yeah but with the way things are going the days of going to a major may come back. of course to leave again but that is just the way it is

 

[skyaddict]

"But I wonder how much information about this career really is being filtered down to the starving CFIs or college students. Time will tell."

Well, Kit Darby will tell them of the impending massive pilot shortage so that they will pay him a few hundred to attend a job fair or two that should be provided entirely at employer expense.

That shiny jet syndrome will live on forever amongst kids with rich uncles willing to fork over whatever their kid wants to fly a shiny jet, as well as some older career changers (often in tech, ironically) who have and are willing to pay a fortune for a chance to take an 80% pay cut.

Personally, I think that the idea of having to eat dirt at the regionals to make it to the majors (Fedex, UPS, SWA, and even JB and AirTran, and to some extent CAL have replaced AA, UA, DL and NW as the pots at the end of the rainbow) is what has infected the industry at all levels, has encouraging whip-sawing and pilot groups putting up with crappy contracts in return for growth/promise of upgrades. Thus, the regionals will continue to degrade the majors payscales as we see more and more heavy iron (ERJ-170s and 190s, CRJ900s) flying at burger flipping wages under contract. The future is overseas, where the growth is. To some extent that will suck up some pilot jobs.

The only way this industry could raise wages would be to create much bigger barriers to entry, eg have associations limit entries into the profession the way that the legal and medical professions do to prop up wages. If there was a free market for entry in those professions the way ours is, lawyers and doctors would have much lower wages, too, though it would be more self-regulating because aviation does have that crazy romance whereby there are always enough people willing to work for anything.

 

[belchfire]

With all the guys still on the streets from
the majors and the rate they are burning
cash anyone that thinks they will get there
and do well needs to put the pipe down
and walk away.

 

[Yank McCobb]

... needs to put the pipe down
and walk away.

Have you known or even ever heard of anyone being able to actually do this? It certainly sounds simple enough in theory, but is virtually impossible in practice.