My ex Son in law trained to be a pilot. It takes many years to get to flying long and even short haul. He is still on domestic inland flights after 9 years. He had his basic training, then he had to do a few years of training others under supervision at flight school.
He then moved to a small inland company flying between Yukon and Vancouver.
It will be a few more years yet before he can move onto the next stage of flying further across country between Candada and The U.S which is short haul over there. He has only just moved onto flying across country in Canada and not as captain when he moved down to Vancouver
It will be years after that before he will beable to fly long haul and be won't be in charge of the plane as in the captain. That will be years later.
Yes this is Canada however the same template will be the same all over.
They train years for it. They are not on that money from the start. They spend years working up to that status.
As well I want to know I am safe. What they are on and the training etc means they are worth their pay. Having being caught up in a terror alert in 2005 at Manchester which the pilot had to deal with half way across to Zante I know full well the pressure they must be under.
We didn't know about the alert until we got to Zante which has happened on the tarmac of where our plane had taken off from
A plane in crisis means the lives are in the hands of the pilot of 250 plus people and the the ramifications. Not a job for the faint hearted.
My only advice is try and change the airline your travelling with. I know I would be peeved however I would look for solutions