Bankruptcy Q Players

[mrholty]

I've used to be critical of pilots and still think many of them have an inflated ego of themselves and their jobs but overpaid is not one of the things you can call them anymore. Add in the fact that being a regional pilot was supposed to be a 2-3 year gig and you've got guys there 10-15 years and its a career. Our regional pilots make less than pretty much anywhere in the world. At some point you are going to start seeing pilots head to Asia for better pay vs the US even if the seniority/protection isn't there. Europe, especially Britain has been sending pilots to the MiddleEast for 20 years and Asia is just starting to ramp up.

The amount of time and training they put in upfront doesn't provide a good ROE. That said, I blame much of this one the greed of their union, ALPA which is the union for almost every pilot in the US except for American. The airline plays two groups (regional and majors) against themselves and ALPA lets it happen as the growth of regionals grew the # of total pilots which meant more fees for them. Airline mgmt can leave (I did) when times are bad but pilots are stuck for life to an airline due to seniority. If their union had balls they would create a national union with national bidding every five years so that each pilot would bid based on their rating type and seniority and be able to compare which option is best for them (higher base pay/worse benefits vs other options).