Originally Posted by
Desertboki
Very disheartening for current first officers that are awaiting their chance for years. It is also a warning to people applying with a lot of previous experience and think they will upgrade in the next 4 years.
Stop the constant negativity if you don’t have all the facts. It’s not disheartening. Far from it. They are open and honest about it internally. Recently there were several message from top management and flt ops stating that upgrades are at full steam and with actual numbers. Before the number of monthly upgrades they are doing now was the exception. Now it’s the norm. It’s the maximum training can handle. They’ve extended NG leases as there is more work than expected coming up apparently. Again, more airplanes means the need for more crew thus continuous upgrades. They have to take DEC’s to fill gaps left by FO’s failing the upgrade and an increase in flying/aircraft. FO’s now have a transparent system where they now have a good idea where they are in the queue. Plus they have the option to postpone it if it doesn’t work for them at that specific time. Without losing your position in the queue. Covid and the MAX grounding pushed everything back from the previous 2.5yrs to 4-5 at the moment. Not the company’s fault and they are doing all the can to upgrade FO’s. The fact that the outlook for 2022 is better that expected means good news and upgrade times reducing faster than expected too.
Oh, and I hear guys/girls applying are being told during the interview the upgrade is between 4-5 yrs at the moment. Again, no one is hiding stuff.