"Airline CEOs would want nothing more than to take their airlines, "flag" them in a 2nd or 3rd world nation, and hire foreign nationals from those countries (and others) to fly, operate, and maintain their airplanes. Certainly an Indonesian pilot could live on $20,000 a year......and probably less! Why pay a U.S. flight attendant $30,000/year when a Lithuanian flight attendant will work for $10,000/year? Why pay a U.S. A&P mechanic $60,000 a year when a Chinese one will work for $25,000 a year! See where I'm going with this?"http://thetruthabouttheprofession.weebly.com/

Good link Jim.As a former regional jet pilot for one of the many crap operators in the US..who shall remain unnamed. It's nice to see someone make an effort to get those who may be considering this profession some straight answers. It's a very expensive and time consuming undertaking that can lead to a very disappointing outcome.Having a very clear understanding of all the facts, good and bad, is a consideration everyone deserves.

As an ex airline mechanic, I wish I had had access to the same info,instead of just the lies by my school,for example, "the airlines will be throwing money at you, when you graduate!" I remember around the time of my graduation from A&P school, talking to Eastern airlines mechs at Boston, and the guy telling me to run as fast as I could away from this industry.

It's hardly a profound revelation to say that companies would prefer to employ people for less; that's pretty much true of every industry, and has been since industry began. Since by their very nature, airliners are mobile, why wouldn't a CEO choose to have his aeroplanes fly to where they could be serviced for half the price? That's his or her job after all, where duty lies with the shareholders and the bottom line rather than the employees.It's well known that a career with the airlines is not the road to riches that it once was and it's been that way for a long time. Part of it is that the technology is such these days that you simply don't need people who are a whiz with a spanner and able to hammer a makeshift part out of what's lying on the workbench to keep an aircraft flying these days when jet engines can run for 100,000 hours between major services. The pilot's job doesn't need 'the right stuff' anymore either now that it mostly consists of plugging a laptop into the FMC and then monitoring how the autopilot is handling the flight. The development of equipment with that kind of reliability and ease of operation has brought about the change, as it has in a lot of other industries.Al

:(

I have extensive sheet metal skills on everything from single engine Cessna, to heavy MD/Boeing. When the company's I worked for started sending the airplanes to chop shops(3rd party vendors), the quality of work decreased greatly,and we had to redo A lot of work. That tells me that the empty suits don't care about safety or quality, Just taking from the working class,and increasing their bonuses. I love working with my hands,and having pride in my work,and now make close to six figures working on subway trains. Some people think mechanics shouldn't make that kind of money, Its all class warfare.

It's hardly a profound revelation to say that companies would prefer to employ people for less; that's pretty much true of every industry, and has been since industry began. Since by their very nature, airliners are mobile, why wouldn't a CEO choose to have his aeroplanes fly to where they could be serviced for half the price? That's his or her job after all, where duty lies with the shareholders and the bottom line rather than the employees.

Exactly, and it's true of almost any industry. I do wonder though where this transfer of jobs to cheap eastern world labor will end? Who the heck is going to buy the reimported goods and services if we're all out of work??

Exactly, and it's true of almost any industry. I do wonder though where this transfer of jobs to cheap eastern world labor will end? Who the heck is going to buy the reimported goods and services if we're all out of work??

Well, the theory is, we all set up hamburger stands with our redundancy money, and then sell hamburgers to each other LOL Or more likely, we end up being the new third world to a prosperous China and india, and it comes full circle, with us all working in sweatshops making Nike trainers for the nouveau riche Chinese and Indians, as we are forced to eek out a living on our wages of 25 pence a week.Al

Higher wages = Higher education.... it's that simple. The problem in Canada and the US for the most part is an issue with entitlement. Kids think things are going to be just handed to them without any effort. I definitely don't blame the teachers for the mess.

Exactly, and it's true of almost any industry. I do wonder though where this transfer of jobs to cheap eastern world labor will end? Who the heck is going to buy the reimported goods and services if we're all out of work??

The emerging Middle Class in China, etc., will buy the stuff.There are a lot of people in Asia with money (not me of course, I'm so poor I live in a swamp!), and, that said, I think in time China won't even need to export much stuff because it will be able to buy its own stuff. But people shouldn't go to off the rails yet. The US and the west (like Ireland, etc.) are going through a bad slump right now... but the US and the west always recover. It's like Rocky in a Rocky movie. He gets beat-up real bad, and just when you think he's down, he recovers...

It's like Rocky in a Rocky movie. He gets beat-up real bad, and just when you think he's down, he recovers...

For me it's more like :Rocky beeing beat up by hundreds of kung-fu guys 24/7 without mercy and Rocky's manager steeling his food and water because he's a greedy ######... :(Bejamin