Sir - British Airways is the latest to install a "B"-scale salary level for new pilots. Will this "deprofessionalisation" of skills be halted before the long-term effect is to render the skies less safe?
The cost-cutting rationale, which drives the airlines, will inevitably lead to less suitable candidates, occupying the flight deck. It is a question of economics: if you do not pay the going rate you will not attract the world's safest pilots.
There are two other worrying aspects to this policy. Firstly, it will have the effect of driving down even further the salaries of second- and third-level airlines. Secondly, there has been not a sound from the two pilots' bodies in the UK, which claim to uphold the professional esteem of this country's pilots.
PETER LLENDELL
Bath, Avon, UK
Source: Flight International
