The long, dark walk on the airline conveyer belt

[No Delay]

DrewBlows...that was a retarded post! However, I do agree we should support our union!

The topic was about improving the industry as a whole...not one airline in particular. The problem is that your airline could negoiate the best contract in the industry...then either your flying will slowly be shifted to another carrier or your airline will be uncompetitive and start losing money.

We need a solution that will improve the entire industry!

 

[DrewBlows]

We need a solution that will improve the entire industry!

Think grass roots. If every pilot group held out for better contracts come negotiating time the industry would improve wouldn't it (at least for the pilots, but that's all we can control anyway)? Would some guys be out of work? Maybe. Would some companies fold? Maybe. I don't have a lot of time in this industry but I do know one thing, when I can't get a job that's worth having I will walk away. If you can't walk away, don't expect much. If I were on the top of the seniority list would I feel this way? I hope so, but I'm not in that position so I don't know. What I do know is that there are/were a lot of pilots who sacrificed their careers for the good of the profession. Sucks for them, good for us. But I feel an obligation to them to uphold the integrity of the profession. Maybe I'm too idealistic, but that's how I feel.

 

[pilotyip]

Change?

"Think grass roots. If every pilot group held out for better contracts come negotiating time the industry would improve wouldn't it"...................................................... Isn't that what all the ALPA union airlines did in the past to allow the LCC's to thrive?But I do agree that if enough guys walk away from the career in sufficient numbers, conditions will change, but then again the airlines might just redefine competitive minimums.

 

[FurloughedAgain]

PilotYip might be right. There might be an 07-08 hiring boom. My question is, to what end?

Are there really jobs worth fighting for?

This is not, after all, the airline industry that we all grew up with. The days of the airline pilot being able to buy a new car every week (1970s) are gone. Inflation simply has not kept up with airline pilot compensation.

The airline pilot is no longer the respected professional he once was. Now, airline crews are forced to remove their shoes at security, have their breath sniffed by TSA. We even foster our own "dumbing down" by the way that we dress and act. We no longer command respect, so it isn't offered (see the backpack thread).

The retirement is no longer there. The major airline pension was a huge benefit. For most people that was the crown jewel of the major airline career. You knew that when you retired, you would do so comfortably. That is no longer the case. Now you must plan for your own retirement, in some cases with no company sponsered contribution.

Major airline contracts are not what they once were. The compensation, the rigs, the lifestyle have all been decimated.

So there will be a hiring boom in 2007. Maybe, maybe not. (With the proliferation of Ejets at the regionals I have my doubts) Even if there were, the question is -- is it really worth the effort to try and get hired at one of these airlines again?

What makes a pilot WANT to work for an airline anymore???

I dont see the draw.

 

[pilotyip]

Check my signature line

But it is still a great career for those who like to fly airplanes. $100K/yr for a high grad is still achievable.

 

[Mr. Jet 2005]

But it is still a great career for those who like to fly airplanes. $100K/yr for a high grad is still achievable.

Once again, I fail to see how us lowering the bar to people who chose not to go and receive a college education should be rewarded by being paid the same wages as those who did invest in themsevles for a college degree. In other fields, take the computer industry, higher paid jobs only come around by having higher experiance, thus raising the bar for those who choose to invest in education.

I like to fly airplanes, but I also like to watch TV. Since when did it become normal to do have a job only because we like it so much, and then be willing to do it for nothing? I guess once they start paying people to watch TV $20k a year, I'll understand.

 

[pilotyip]

Yes in the computer industry you learn in college to become a computer whatever it is. Then companies wanting to hire computer whatever’s go to the college to recruit those college graduates. Flying an airplane is not a skill that is developed in the classroom; it is a hands-on skill development. Even the college flying programs do not prepare a pilot for an entry-level job, except maybe CFI. The college grad has to go out and built time. When the college graduate starts building time he is four years behind the HS grad. The college grad may know more about Greek Literature but his pilots are indistinguishable from the HS grads and that is why 172 out of 177 airlines hiring do not make the degree a show stopper. Remember some of finest pilots ever to take to the skies were 19-yr. old kids with 300 hr total time. They flew their B-17 and B-24 in tight formation for 12 hours at a time into the Germans skies. They did not have college degrees. I don’t see how this had anything to do with lowering the bar.

 

[Herman Bloom]

Absolutely true, pilotyip; but can you deny that making a degree mandatory for pilots -- while it would certainly do nothing to improve the quality of the applicant pool -- would shrink the available supply of "qualified" crewmembers?

Mandatory degree = barrier to entry = fewer entries = possibly higher salaries.

 

[pilotyip]

I hire pilots, why would I eliminate a qualified pilot just because he does not have a four-year degree. Do I turn my back on Gulf War Army vets; W-2 is who do not have degrees? Alternatively, ex-Zantop pilots with 12K hours in turbine equipment? SWA, JB, Air Tran do not the absence of a degree stand in the way of hiring the right guy. In addition, the college dergee requirement would not shrink the pool of applicants because almost everyone has a degree. You might take out 5% of the pilot applicants that would not effect the supply of pilots enough to see any difference.

 

[FlyingMan2005]

Just curious, does anyone feel any different about this industry after the Mesaba, Comair BK notices? When is enough?