I was taken aback by the tone of the DFOs email. Reading it made me feel like it was the 1990s all over again.
Given his stated YTD resignation rate of 3.5%, and given that we are only seven months into the year, projecting his stated resignation numbers to year end results is a resignation rate well over 5%...and that’s OK? According to his email the cost of replacing swathes of experienced pilots is not really that bad...it’s somehow a normal thing — a good thing — something that they have budgeted for. Anyone who has balanced a cheque book would squint at such a comment. Just from a cost standpoint alone, the loss of experienced pilots would be ringing alarm bells in any other legacy airline. According to the email, losing pilots with experience and replacing them with brand new zero time pilots, and a few low time pilots, makes financial good sense, and is something to trumpet and laud? Unbelievable.
And I totally agree with Traf regarding the DFOs salary benchmarking comment that somehow manages to ignore our sister airline at Dragon Air. The contractural 13th month at Dragon Air amounts to a 9% disparity in pay. But nothing to see here folks....move along.
All in all the tone of his email was reminiscent of past days when such missives were so detrimental to morale....while at the same time stating that he does not want to dwell on the past...it was a disorienting read.
The comment regarding the value of lost experience being easily mitigated by the recruitment of zero time, and low time pilots, was disturbing, to say the least. What other airline lauds the fact that low time pilots are replacing their experienced ones, while trumpeting cost and safety? As I said, a disorienting read.
All in all, the email was a call to ignore my lying eyes. Anyone with a pulse can see what is really happening. It should not have been written in such a tone...especially at this critical time when negotiations should be drawing to a close. Instead of a convincing pitch for the Company and pilots to come together I predict it will have the opposite effect and put off large numbers of pilots.
My goodness....