FYI: ALPA addresses pilot availability:

ALPA: Airline Pilots In Strong Supply For Right Career Opportunity | Aero-News Network

Interesting twist from Air Wisconsin. Interview below ATP mins, offer a waiting job when the pilot gets close to ATP mins. Set the hook and wait. If a person is a CFI or something similar, and can get that additional 600 hours in about a year +/-, this might be a good deal ? Sign of the times. Air Wisconsin has been around a very long time, IIRC:

"Thank you for your email. I want to confirm we will hire at 850 total time by offering you a contingent offer if you are selected during the interview process. What it means is once you finish your hours, you will have a job waiting for you. Although Air Wisconsin may not be able to help obtain all the hours someone may need, Air Wisconsin will help in reaching your total time by providing 36 hours of SIM time toward your total time (or 46 hours if you are taking our CTP course). Hope this helps, if you have any questions, please let me know.

Thanks!


Recruiting Coordinator
Air Wisconsin Airlines Corporation"

Pilots

Most regionals will hire you below mins. Skywest asks you to be within 3 months of being able to start class.

Envoy has a cadet program where they pay your CFI salary under an agreement that you will work for Envoy once you reach 1500. A year and a half ago, Piedmont was paying for up to 300 hours of flight time in exchange for a commitment, so if you had 1200 hours, they would pay for you to rent a Cessna/Piper for 300 hours, and you would owe them 1 year for every 100 hours that they paid.

Rumor is that Air Wisconsin just cancelled their latest class because they only had one student show up.

Zonda,

Now that you mention it, I remember that PDT deal. I thought it was just an internal offer for current employees who wanted to make the jump to a cockpit position. Don't bet the grocery money on what I remember but I think that's what it was.

I hope Air Wisconsin didn't leave that one guy hanging when they cancelled the class. He probably cut bait (or took overt steps to) from his previous job to go there.

Hey !! What happened to all the Aussies who were coming up here ? I'm surprised no regional has shaken that bush to see what falls out. My secret agent Down There sees no evidence of outreach.

This is all gettin' "funner" & "funner" to watch... :-))

I work at the company that was supposedly going to bring Australians... The plan never materialized.

Zonda,

"The plan never materialized."

I guess not. I thought we were onto something with that rumor. ;-)

One example why regionals are important to legacies:

"Now 'we are focused on brand perfect days' which would include the 2,400 of Delta’s 5,500 daily departures [~44%] that are operated as Delta Connection flights by six regional partners including Endeavor Air, which Delta owns."

Yet:

"Regional airlines also suffer financial problems, largely as a result of being squeezed because the three global carriers bid out regional flying to the lowest bidder."

Delta, Not Content, Wants To Fix The Unfixable: Regional Operations And Long Security Lines

Yet more headhunting:

Seeking 500 pilots a year, PSA Airlines sweetens the pot - Dayton Business Journal


I wonder how many of these needed slots their cadet program will help fill:

http://www.psaairlines.com/careers/cadet-program/

A little more on US regional, PSA, just as an example of what's happening here. Pilot shortage ? Mmm, I'm still a skeptic:

"Finding pilots remains a challenge, even with the flow-through. The pilot shortage was among the most common topics of conversation at the convention. 'Everybody's feeling it,' said Flannery, who noted that with many of today's pilots approaching mandatory retirement at age 65, 'we're at the beginning of the pilot shortage -- it's a tough one to solve, a structural issue.' "

American's PSA Airlines Figures Out How to Grow in a Brutal Business - TheStreet

[Zonda, yes, I've seen ASA LOA #16 ;-) ]

Respectfully, that's incorrect on both accounts. No airline that I'm aware of can actually require you to be a US citizen as a pre-requisite to employment. It's illegal. I'm pretty sure they can require you to be a citizen to do the CRAF stuff, though

Also, I was married for 2 years before I got my permanent GC and could apply for citizenship after 5 years of being a permanent resident. This may have changed, though.

A couple of US operators list a "valid U.S. passport" as a requirement to work there vs the "legal ability to work..." route. Not sure why that'd be. Kalitta Charters comes to mind...can't remember the other ones:

https://www.pilotcareercentre.com/Pi...tta%20Charters

Flat out U.S. citizenship is required for those Department of Defense contract pilot positions but they're a different sorta gig.

Kenny, sorry you had to wait five years to get the citizenship. Now it's 3 years for spouses of US citizens. It's still five years for other green card holders.

Z,

Is Great Lakes having any trouble getting applicants ? This might help recruiting a bit.

Any further details in the article since we can't read it all from the link ?

Great Lakes seems to be a survivor if nothing else.

Yes, Great Lakes has a huge problem with retention. They have no shortage of SIC applicants since now they have a part 135 certificate and can hire candidates with 250 hours. But they have a shortage of captains. They also have a 121 certificate and staffing the 121 side is their priority.

You call Great Lakes a survivor, pilots know them as the cockroaches of the regional world.

ALPA is wrong. There is NOT a strong supply of pilots. For example, a pilot for either UPS or FedEx recently posted of info from a meeting with their Chief Pilot. They were told within about two years, their applicant pool will have shrunk so far, they will not be able to recruit enough pilots for their operation.

Sorry, not buying the idea that either UPS of FED-EX will be unable to fill pilot positions in 2 years.

Understand, I am not saying that you didn't see someone claiming to be a pilot for one of those airlines, post on a forum some place the claim that his chief pilot told him that was true. You may very well have. That don't make it true. The airlines with the best Pay, Benefits and working conditions are for the most part *still* inundated with applicants to the point that they are *still* using some pretty questionable criteria to weed out otherwise well qualified applicants. The requirement for a college degree for example. Mind you, I say this as someone who holds a bachelors degree, so the is not a case of personal resentment. But a college degree (particularly one in a non-related, non technical discipline) has virtually nothing to do with the ability to fly an airplane. There are plenty of very skilled pilots who don't have a college degree. I know some. I suspect that you fly with a number of them. The major airline interviewing and recruiting process contains a lot of elements of a meaningless beauty contest. There are business which exist solely to advise hopeful interviewees on such vital items as the correct color and pattern of suit to wear, together with the correct colour tie.

Sorry, if you're interviewing at an airline where the difference between wearing a blue pin striped suit vs a black solid suit can make a difference in whether you get hired, you're in a beauty contest. And that airline is running this beauty contest precisely because they have such an abundance of applicants with good qualifications that they can afford to reject them on the basis of silly nonsense.

"You call Great Lakes a survivor, pilots know them as the cockroaches of the regional world. "


Zondaracer,

Yes, I've heard that too, yet they continue to survive. They can probably serve as the barometer of the regional airline biz: if GLA can do it, so can all the rest !! :-)))

AxA,

I agree with your assessment of the "beauty contest" at the legacy level (I also have a 4-year degree...BFD). If the industry intends to soldier on, I hope the regionals won't be as misled by that degree stuff. Someday, they might need to tap all available segments of the willing-and-able supply...and regional experience is a proper place for people to get experience.

Republic Airways casts a bit wider net for pilots:

Republic Airways, The Ohio State University Sign Career Pipeline Interview Agreement | Business Wire

Article is dated today and it's the first mention I've seen of the program. It can't hurt Silver or Great Lakes:

"…designed to remove many of the career uncertainties that pilots face as they begin their airline careers by guaranteeing pilots entering the Career Pilot Program a first officer position with Frontier upon completion of defined experience requirements.

Frontier plans to launch the Frontier Career Pilot Program this month."

https://worldairlinenews.com/2016/06...ilver-airways/

No mention yet of this program on Frontier or Silver websites and only this from Great Lakes:

https://flygreatlakescareers.silkroa...-Programs.html