� Q: I’m 27 and about to be a newly certificated commercial pilot through a Part 141 flight school. I know that training costs are high and the salary starting out as a first officer at a regional airline is barely enough to survive, especially for students and dependents with high amounts of training debt and probably not good credit. But I also know that a regional airline is where I really want to be for the potential of going on to the majors. For years, people in the field have been saying that first officer starting pay eventually will be raised. Is there any evidence to suggest that it will be raised to make life a little bit easier for the new first officer with a family and loans to pay back from training? I appreciate any time, advice, suggestions, or feedback you can provide. —Matt from Killeen, Texas
� A: Your query comes at the right time. It seems that there is a real possibility to earn enough money as a first-year regional jet pilot to keep the bill collectors at bay.
In this issue I take stock of a growing trend in the regional airline industry (see “That Was Then, This Is Now,” p. 47): sign-on bonuses and/or retention pay that can put that RJ right-seater in the $40,000 bracket. What is prompting this development? Candidly, the airlines want to stop the bleeding. Chatting with a number of RJ pilots, they tell numerous tales of pilots either jumping ship for other carriers for a higher salary or bailing on the industry altogether, after spending a fortune to get there.
Of course, there probably isn’t an Embraer 145 or Canadair Regional Jet captain alive who doesn’t have an application on file with a big airline. Once the captain becomes a first officer at a major, the right seater in an RJ moves to the left seat—but who takes that place? And more than any other factor, the ATP rule is causing a labor shortage for those seats. Showing more up-front money is the proverbial carrot on the stick, they hope.
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