Ocrassus posted:

In aviation, progression is mostly handled via seniority, which is just based on join date. You have checkups every 6 months to make sure you can fly safe, but otherwise there isn't really any performance metric for progression, with the exception of a command course that moves you from the right hand side (first officer) to the left (captain), which also usually resets your seniority. Flying, particularly international, is still relatively well compensated but certainly does not have the prestige it once did, the very expensive training is no longer sponsored and has to be paid for by the applicant, and the very generous perks (known in the industry as the Ts&Cs) have been whittled down significantly.

The interesting part of this decline from a political perspective is why it's happened. Sure, some of it can be laid at the blame of corporate greed, but a lot is simply to do with the transition from a high margin low volume business to a low margin high volume business. Low cost carriers have put a huge pressure on costs and most flights will not break even unless they regularly fill 80-90% of the seats. On long haul, economy seats are there to essentially fill the plane, with the profit coming from the premium seats (where there is no pressure to cut costs to compete). It's good for passengers (and probably society) though, because when things were the best for pilots, only an extremely tiny minority could afford to travel.