Originally Posted by
oicur12.again
Several airlines have parked aircraft as they simply cannot find enough typed and experienced captains willing to accept the terms being offered.
There, I fixed it for you.
You know when FED-EX goes to hire pilots they are absolutely swamped with applications, many more with extensive experience than they can hire.
I'm not sure what airlines and type you're referring to, but I would suggest that if they started offering terms that were equal to Fed-EX's, they would find that their pilot shortage had quite suddenly disappeared.
As far as looking for typed captains, unless you're talking about some very unusual airplane which is like no other on the planet, a type is no big deal. you offer terms which will attract qualified pilots with substantial command experience in relevant similar types, and you type them when they do their initial new hire training, which you have to give to new hires anyway, and a type ride is not much different than a PIC PC.
Additionally, just the fact that they're looking to hire typed captains directly is significant. Except in the case of start-ups, or sudden huge fleet expansions, trying to hire street captains is generally a sign that the airline has been hiring inexperienced pilots into the right seat for low wages, and suddenly finds themselves without pilots experienced enough to upgrade.
Again, the FED-EXes of the world don't have this problem. The terms they offer attract plenty of applicants with substantial large jet command time, for *FO* positions. So, when they need to upgrade a captain, they already have candidates with plenty of relevant command experience within the ranks.