Some pilots flying for American Airlines' subsidiary regional airlines will soon make nearly twice their current salary in a groundbreaking new pay scheme

The pilots at the two regional carriers are getting a big raise.

Both Piedmont Airlines and Envoy Air announced on Saturday that they had reached a deal with the Air Line Pilots Association to increase pilot pay.

First-year captains will make $150 per hour and entry-level first officers will make $90 per hour. The previous pilot pay rates were 78 and 51 per hour. The captains used to be paid $86 per hour.

According to Envoy, the raise is nearly double what is offered at competitors. The highest first-year regional first officer pay rate was $52.98 an hour.

According to Piedmont, the new pay scale is higher than Delta Air Lines' wholly-owned carrier, which is the country's third- highest paying regional airline.

The carrier said that a new hire pilot should make more than pilots at leading ULCCs over the first five years.

The pilots with the biggest pay increases are line check airmen. Piedmont CEO Eric Morgan told The Points Guy that these pilots leave for mainline airlines faster than other groups.

It is a strategic move to make sure that we can keep our training moving and not have to put a limit on how many new pilots you can train and qualify because you don't have enough line check airmen to get in the seat with them and fly the line

Regional carriers are struggling to hire and retain pilots because mainline carriers are paying them more. It takes 120 days to replace a pilot who leaves for a bigger carrier, according to Jonathan Ornstein.

Carriers have fought the shortage with aggressive hiring campaigns and retention bonuses. In December and June, American and United grounded their regional jets because they didn't have enough pilots to fly them.

The carrier wants to get more pilots to fly sooner. Republic asked the FAA for permission to hire pilots with just 750 hours of training instead of the required 1,500 hours.

"Republic is not proposing to overturn the 1500-hour rule or weaken safety; to the contrary, we are proposing a more intensive, mission-specific training pathway similar to what is permitted for military pilots under current law," the CEO said.

If you have a two or four-year degree, you can fly at the regional level with 1,250 or 1,000 hours.