Here is something you don't read often.
A bit of both. Hiring over here is fierce - it's a bit like it was in the '80s. Some regional airlines have hired in excess of 250 pilots in the last year, again partly due to expansion, partly due to folk moving on to bigger types. And that is REGIONAL airlines... I guess that is why I find NZ hiring figures somewhat underwhelming.
In our case, in order to attract new pilots, we are substantially increasing pay packages, which I am sure would be music to the ears of NJS pilots.
Our crews didn't ask for it - we just did it, because we recognise that we need to safeguard our workforce for the long term. In addition to that, we are also in the process of improving conditions - better hotels, friendlier rosters, more time off, better equipment in the aircraft, and so on. Again. we are doing this without being asked, for the same reasons. We take the view that we want to be known as a good employer, and we want our company to be a good place to work. Achieve that, and pilots will beat a path to your door... it is the part of the Southwest Airlines model that most low-cost operations conveniently forget. Our company ethos is to ensure that lifestyle is considered on an equal footing with profit.
Why, you might ask, would we do such a thing? Well, it comes down to the fact that for most pilots, once they have achieved a reasonable level of employment (say, their first jet), lifestyle issues start to dominate and the desire to fly the bigger jet starts to recede. Most pilots who have been in the airlines for more than five years are mostly concerned with lifestyle, once you get to ten years in the job, 90% of pilots are primarily concerned with lifestyle issues.
Throughout my career I have never failed to be surprised about how little it would take to make people happy and how often companies fail to make that little bit of effort.
I remember in Talair when a new manager started fecking with peoples accom how unhappy people became...and some long serving and experienced pilots walked feeling devastated at being treated in such a manner after, in one case, a decade + of loyal service. All of a sudden he wanted to move pilots out of their houses so he could rent out the 'better' housing to outsiders. Leave aside for the moment that the compound had been built to house staff...out came a decree that all staff would be moved into houses 1 through XX...for many this was a move from houses they had been in for MANY years into houses that were too small for families, 3 bedroom to 2, or for single guys from 2 bedrooms into bedsits. All said manager had to do was nothing...just leave people alone, in this case, and they'd have remained happy and good employees...when it almost backfired he went as far as renumbering the houses to achieve what he wanted....why?
On another occassion tax laws changed giving the troops a potential payrise at no cost to company...the first in years...the company was going to reduce our gross as a result and, I am reliably informed, Dennis Buchannan only blinked at the very last moment due to the depth of feeling from CP down...why?