Regional airlines lower bar for pilots

[RamboLiberal]

Source: Star-Telegram.com

If you've flown on a regional airline like American Eagle or Atlantic Southeast Airlines with any regularity, you may have noticed that the pilots seem a bit younger.

It's not your imagination. Regional carriers, which operate flights for major airlines like American, Delta and United, have been slashing their minimum hiring requirements in recent years as they grapple with a growing shortage of pilots. The carriers have reduced required flight hours for job applicants by as much as two-thirds, and in a few cases have hired pilots with the minimum experience required by the Federal Aviation Administration for a pilot's license.

Airline executives say recruiting less experienced pilots is necessary because the pool of applicants is shrinking while demand for pilots grows. And many have increased training for new hires and assigned them more time flying with veteran co-pilots.

Pilot union officials, while not citing specific incidents, say they're worried that the trend could make the skies less safe.

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For example, a starting pilot at Trans States, a regional airline that flies for American under the name American Connection, earns $22 a flight hour, with 74 hours guaranteed a month, according to AirlinePilotCentral.com, which tracks pilot salaries. That translates to an annual starting salary of $19,500. A pilot flying 1,000 hours a year -- the most allowed under federal rules -- would earn about $22,000.



Read more: http://www.star-telegram.com/business/story/322928.html

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Oh yeah, that makes me feel safe with pilots with fewer hours earning a yearly near-poverty wage. I avoid regional airlines whenever possible but it is getting tougher and tougher. For instance to get from Pittsburgh to KC and back I had to fly a regional between Charlotte and KC.

[ixion]

1. at 19.5 they're living in a shoebox, barely able to eat and pay utils at the same time

gee, I wonder why there would be an applicant shortage. :eyes:

[kineneb]

2. also, Vietnam-era pilots retiring

many pilots are/were vets from the Vietnam fiasco. They were able to get jobs afterwards flying civilian aircraft. Now they are retiring and there is no similar large cohort from which to recruit replacements. Add in the low pay...

[high density]

3. I fly out of Maine and we have little choice beyond regional carriers

If you don't want to fly a regional airliner from PWM, you need to fly AirTran or JetBlue. Unfortunately their destinations are far from universal.

I'm flying Atlantic Southeast next month. :)

$19.5k is horrible. These people could make that working a shitty bank job.

[pokercat999]

4. My brother-in-law, a retired airline pilot with over 22,000 hours

says the shortage of pilots is the worst it's been since the 60's when he first got hired at Eastern (remember that name?). At the current wages it's tough to spend 40K usually after college to get the basic licences and flight time under your belt in order to get hired in an entry level position earning 22 bucks a flight hour. My neighbor flies a corporate jet after getting laidoff from AA. He jsut started making some decent money after 4 or 5 years, but still doesn't live the life style he could as a 1st officer with AA.

[Pavulon]

5. Not good, but there a few fixes...

first I will state that is a horrible salary. I would refuse to fly with an airline that pays that to a Capitan.

I would assume there is a 1st officer (who is getting ripped off) and a Capitan on each flight.

The Capitan generally is paid much more, because he has experience.

I travel a bit and know a pilot or two (neighbors). They all started out making shit money after leaving the air force.

However after a few years they move up the ladder and get much better salary (as they should).

One thing that happens is when a particular airlines furlough employees they are essentially stopped from moving to a different company. You lose seniority.

Having a pool of crew that are paid more and well trained may help. Shared seniority for some crew could help, but not screw over senior crew.

[colorado_ufo]

6. Just flew last week.

I could not help but notice that not only was the (regional airline) pilot a very young man, but the co-pilot was a women who could not have been more than 22 years old. On the other hand, on the UniTED portion of my flight, one flight attendant was a black man approximately 6 feet-plus tall and weighing a good 300 lb. (NO KIDDING) and another flight attendant was a woman who looked to be in her early fifties and a bit on the heavier side, with with long gray hair and eyeglasses hanging around her neck.

No slight to any of these very fine, and I'm sure very competent, people, but it is a stunning change. Back in the early 70s, when I was intrigued by the thought of an airline career, the requirements for becoming a pilot almost automatically excluded women, and to be a "stewardess" one had to have hair "not touching the collar," be in her early 20s, preferably unmarried, 20/20 vision with contact lenses, and weight "in proportion to height," which to them meant approximately 110 lb. for a woman 5' 5", as an example. And this was a great loosening of requirements from when "stews" had to be both single AND a registered nurse!

My point? Just as always, "The times they are a-changing."

[trof]

7. Oh boy. Where to start? '68 TWA hire here.

I was 28 and had 1500 hours of flying time, all USAF.
I started on the bottom rung as a flight engineer, a position that no longer exists in modern passenger aircraft.
TWA paid me while I attended their 3 month flight engineer school.

For the first year of employment I was on 'probation'.
I was not allowed to be a full member of the union.
Just an 'associate member'.
Which meant I could be fired at any time, for any reason, or no reason.
This is where the company weeded out the unfit.
Not everyone can adapt to working with a 3-man cockpit crew, get along with cabinet attendants, schmooze with passengers, show up for work on time and sober, etc.

During that first year I was paid a flat salary of $500 a month, no matter how many hours I put in.
Back then it was a living wage.

Once I'd finished my probation period I went on 'increment pay'.
That meant I was paid so much an hour, with a minimum monthly guarantee. My monthly pay jumped to $1,500.
I was RICH, baby!
;-)

The slow, downward death spiral of the airlines began 10 years after I was hired, with the Airline Deregulation Act. That happened on Jimmy Carter's watch. And it still rankles. It destroyed a lot of careers and a lot of families.
You can read all about it here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airline_Deregulation_Act

The military no longer serves as the training ground for, or constant supply of, airline pilots.
So, more and more pilots come from civilian backgrounds.
And it is incredibly expensive to gain the licenses and experience necessary to become an airline pilots.
So fewer and fewer are taking that route.

And so the bar gets lower and lower.
And the pay gets worse.
And yes, that scares the hell out of this old pilot.
Now, I avoid flying if at all possible.
And if I just HAVE to, I know it's a crapshoot and hope I'll stay lucky.
:-(

I'll be around for a while to answer questions if you have any.