US Regional Headhunting
 

FYI: Recent efforts

I guess these regionals are wholly owned by AA ?* I can keep 'em straight anymore:

Piedmont: Cadets

PSA: PSA Airlines | PSA Airlines Launches Industry-Leading Cadet Program | January 21, 2016

Envoy: Cadet Program takes pilots from classroom to cockpit : EnvoyAir

That's correct, all three are wholly owned by American. Why do they need three wholly owned? So they can whipsaw them around.

Also, Endeavor is wholly owned by Delta. Horizon is wholly owned by Alaska. United just bought a share in Commutair.

A couple other regionals now have recruiting or cadet programs such as Skywest Airlines and Trans States.

Zonda,

Is this type of program regarded favorably by rank and file ?

Pilots at my company don't seem bothered. Generally speaking, they view it as a gimmick to get more new hires.

Zonda,

"...they view it as a gimmick to get more new hires."

Sounds like some kinda gimmick is necessary from what I'm hearing.

Can they go "Class room to Cockpit" in the US? What are the hour requirements for Regionals to put these guys in the RHS?

Guessing all those schools in the program can issue restricted ATPs so they'll need 1000 hours.

@bafanguy, it just depends on the regional. There are regionals filling classes (Skywest hiring 100+ a month) and some not able to fill classes (GoJets 15 a month and now accepting direct entry captain).

@Wizofoz, all the regionals are taking guys with ATP minimums, and most are taking guys with restricted ATP mins (750TT for military, 1000TT/1250TT for certain University programs, 1500TT everybody else).

So, even if they go through these schemes, they need to get 1000hrs. What do they usually do to fill the gap?

Yes they still need 1000 hours and these schemes are done in conjunction with universities and flying schools.

To be eligible for these programs, you typically have to become a flight instructor at the school that has a partnership with the airline and you instruct until you reach 1000/1250/1500 hours. In some cases, the airline pays the salary of the instructor.

Great,
So we perpetuate the system where the least experienced pilots are the teachers of the next generation.

^^^ US military has done that for years.

@wizofoz: flight instructing is always going to be like that unless flight instructor salaries miraculously match those of airline captains. Not gonna happen.

Fortunately, the flight school where I worked had some highly experienced career flight instructors (one guy had 25,000 hours of dual given).

A little headhunting update from the colonies:

Pilots With Part 121 Experience : EnvoyAir

Envoy rewards pilots with Part 121 experience : EnvoyAir

There is movement from one regional to another. For example, about 9% of attrition at Expressjet (the only regional for which I have data) in both 2014 (69) and 2015 (92) went to other regionals with Compass getting about a third of those numbers.

Once upon a time, in a galaxy far far away... This was not looked upon kindly. Pilot management wanted to select the best candidates wherever they could find them. They didn't necessarily want a company training school, even if it was an airline, to be the source of pilot talent. When the US Airline industry was in a tailspin in the early 2000's, Pilot labor union's granted "scope" concessions during bad times. These scope concessions allowed the regional airlines to fly jets.

Now that the industry is profitable there is nothing left to trade and the major pilot union/s are not willing to make any more concessions on scope or other contractual areas. Therefore the company's are free to try to make arrangements to deal with the pilot shortage in a manner they see fit.

Unions and pilot management are really now relegated to the back seat in airline hiring. At my company, one of the big three, and at the others, or so I hear, hiring is primarily done by Human Resources,(HR). Pilot management doesn't see a candidate until he has been blessed by HR. When I was hired, way back when, the pilot selection board was mostly independent of HR and they made the selection and then sent the candidate to HR for review. If HR found disqualifying issues, convictions, falsified records, etc, the could reject the candidate. Now it is the other way around and I think that many good pilot candidates don't get through the interview process because of some issue unrelated to piloting.

If your company is hiring future captains you are looking for leaders and those who can make decisions. You want someone who will embrace and adhere to the important elements of CRM. You also want a team player who gets along well with other work groups. However you want a captain who will act as the Pilot In Command and will "step on toes" if absolutely necessary. I think HR wants someone who will never raise his voice and sit around the campfire and sing "kumbaya" and drink the company cool-aide in massive quantities.

Pilots no longer hire pilots at the US major carriers. At least not at my company.

That is just my opinion. Here endith the ranting.

Does anyone know if any of these airlines would sponsor an individual. I am assuming you need the right to work and live in the US with a green card?

They are not doing it now but my guess, considering the recent Republic Chapter 11 filing, that they might attempt to end run the process by attempting to gain H1B visas for pilot candidates. The US H1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in specialty occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise in specialized fields such as in architecture, engineering, mathematics, science, and medicine. [https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q...s+an+hb1+visa]

I have no knowledge that this is happening or about to happen. However HIB visa's are designed to allow company's to hire candidates that have special skills that are not available in the US. I don't know anything about the details of that type of visa.

This might be one way that the US Pilot profession is opened up to the world. It has not happened yet.

ZB,

Speaking of Republic, visas and pilot supply, they tried to get Brazilians in here when they were hurting for pilots...didn't work. Good entertainment value to it though. This from a WSJ article:


"Republic Airways CEO Says Labor Accord Has Halved Pilot Losses"

"Mr. Bedford called the increased training requirement the “most significant headwind” to bringing in new pilots. The airline last year sought to take advantage of a slump in Brazilian air traffic to bring in foreign pilots, but was unable to get visas for them to fly in the U.S., he said."

I have a feeling that the ATP rule would quickly be changed if we had to go down the H1B visa route to find pilots....

TheBiggerD,

I suppose the Imperial Federal Government could throw enough word salad at this situation to ease up the functional requirements while claiming they actually didn't compromise voter "safety".

But I don't see any large scale intake of expats here in the USA. We'll have to see lower level operators disappearing by the score before there's an adjustment to current visa criteria.

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