Originally Posted by
bafanguy
Zonda,
Is this type of program regarded favorably by rank and file ?
Once upon a time, in a galaxy far far away... This was not looked upon kindly. Pilot management wanted to select the best candidates wherever they could find them. They didn't necessarily want a company training school, even if it was an airline, to be the source of pilot talent. When the US Airline industry was in a tailspin in the early 2000's, Pilot labor union's granted "scope" concessions during bad times. These scope concessions allowed the regional airlines to fly jets.
Now that the industry is profitable there is nothing left to trade and the major pilot union/s are not willing to make any more concessions on scope or other contractual areas. Therefore the company's are free to try to make arrangements to deal with the pilot shortage in a manner they see fit.
Unions and pilot management are really now relegated to the back seat in airline hiring. At my company, one of the big three, and at the others, or so I hear, hiring is primarily done by Human Resources,(HR). Pilot management doesn't see a candidate until he has been blessed by HR. When I was hired, way back when, the pilot selection board was mostly independent of HR and they made the selection and then sent the candidate to HR for review. If HR found disqualifying issues, convictions, falsified records, etc, the could reject the candidate. Now it is the other way around and I think that many good pilot candidates don't get through the interview process because of some issue unrelated to piloting.
If your company is hiring future captains you are looking for leaders and those who can make decisions. You want someone who will embrace and adhere to the important elements of CRM. You also want a team player who gets along well with other work groups. However you want a captain who will act as the Pilot In Command and will "step on toes" if absolutely necessary. I think HR wants someone who will never raise his voice and sit around the campfire and sing "
kumbaya" and drink the company cool-aide in massive quantities.
Pilots no longer hire pilots at the US major carriers. At least not at my company.
That is just my opinion. Here endith the ranting.