We don’t care about quality, that is what we pay the captains for. This is why we have such an intense command course which is backed up by our Review Board.
Admire your selection of words regarding “BUMS” could not be more appropriate.
This is copied from another Pprune web site:
United stopped hiring
Delta stopped hiring
Continental stopped hiring
Northwest stopped hiring
Expressjet stopped hiring
Skywest stopped hiring
ASA stopped hiring
FedEx stopped hiring
UPS has stopped hiring
Expressjet is offering pilots unpaid leave of absences
United is grounding 15-20 737 aircraft
Delta is grounding 10? mainline aircraft
Northwest is grounding 24 DC-9 aircraft
Regional flying has been cut substantially
Comair, Skywest, Expressjet, ASA, Mesa, and others have had their regional contracted flying hours cut
Aloha Airlines filed for bankruptcy (again)
Skybus cut back almost 50% of their routes
Froniter sold 4 aircraft
Jetblue sold 6 aircraft
Big Sky went out of business
Skyway went out of business
Aloha went out of business
Champion Air went out of business
Edit: ATA out of business
We expect some to follow in Europe as well.
Not many older than 30 years of age will leave The Cathay Pacific Group to join the bottom of a Seniority list with their National Airline. Most have a rather large ego after flying shiny wide body aircraft to return to narrow bodies.
These national carriers you mentioned may continue to hire but not at a rate some pilots are expecting. We may have some of our younger pilots leave as they still have a future in their national airline but they run the risk of being at the bottom of a seniority list. Most will not take that risk.
Due to high oil prices how many will take the risk with new start-ups like Jetstar or Virgin Blue. How long will they remain in business compared to The Cathay Pacific Group. They may not last two years and then where do you find employment?
Educate me on which pilot group will leave for the above carriers?
I will give you our synopsis:
Senior Captains: Senior Captains are extending on lesser conditions.
Captains: Most are in their 40’s and will not leave to join the bottom of a seniority list as an first officer. None will contract out in other countries i.e. Korea, India, etc. unless we terminate their contract.
Junior Captains: Most are in their 30’s with wide body commands and will not leave to join BA, LH etc. at the bottom of the list as first officers.
Senior First Officers: Too close to a shiny wide body command.
First Officers: Not many are willing to start at the bottom as first officers.
Junior First Officers: May get a few depending on age. Only the younger ones may leave. Most will not, they are in the flying seat of a wide body.
Second Officers: Some may leave again depending on age and retirement age but these seats can be easily filled with the minimum amount of training. Young second officers joining will see their command in 15-18 years which still put them under 40 years of age.
Freighter Europe and North America: most are too old and where will they go? The younger captains took early commands to fly shiny wide-body aircraft and take their base. They are older now, where will they go?
From an age perspective not many will leave above the age of 30 and we expect a small amount to leave under that age.
So tell me, where is the shortage of pilots?
Looking forward to cutting your contract to the lowest common denominator.
To My Bonus.
The Management.