vagabond

I've been looking at all the different airline profiles on APC's home page (yeah, I do not exactly spend ALL my time on the forums ). There is use of terminology that is a bit confusing to a layperson. For example purposes, I will take the profile for Alaska and FedEx.

On the Alaska page, it has this:

Junior ANC capt hired: Dec 1998
Junior LAX capt hired: Sept 1998
Junior SEA capt hired Apr 1998

On the FedEx page, it has this:

Most junior captain hired: Feb 2005 (A300/HKG)

1) Why the persistent use of Junior Captain as a "benchmark?"
2) Does knowing the statistic for Senior Captain make any difference?
3) Why is there not a category of Junior FO?
4) Why does FedEx not have a listing of Junior Captain for the other domiciles?
5) If the Junior SEA Captain at Alaska was hired April, 1998, how would you describe all the warm bodies hired immediately after this fellow?
6) Following question 5, are these people all FOs?
7) Does it serve any useful purpose to breakdown the list of pilots into Captains and FOs, instead of giving a total?
8) In a furlough, are only FOs given the pink slip? Are captains ever furloughed?
9) If true that more FOs than captains are furloughed, would that not cause an imbalance in the number of crews? Surely, two people cannot sit on the left seat at the same time?

TPROP4ever

Disclaimer: These answers are what I believe to be true, if Im wrong please someone correct me...

1) That is ussually the line drawn for the last time a FO was upgraded and what base he ended up at.
2) only if you want to make him feel OLD....lol
3) because the most junior FO would have been in the last class they held...period
4) Ask a purple tail flyer this one
5) Senior FO's waiting for upgrade
6) as a rule of thumb...Yes
7) yes, because some people may only qualify to hire into a certain base, and that might be part of the decision process ( think normal times, not currently)
8) I think as a rule of thumb yes only FO's are subject to furlough, unless you were a street or direct hire captain (doesnt happen often, just during severe shortages) at worst most captains just get downgraded back to FO, or CQFO or whatever term the carrier uses
9) Ahh but some airlines will fly 2 Capts together, when FO coverage is slim during a furlough, but again I think alot of that has to do with CBA's

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subicpilot

I don't know about 1 thru 8, but as far as #9 goes, it's a little known fact that the left seat in most widebody aircraft is stressed to hold two people...I think you know what I'm talkin' about...

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Twin Wasp

1. It's to give you an idea how long it'll be till your upgrade. As the banks say, past performance is no guarantee of future earnings.

2. Their hiring date doesn't matter, usually the union will have a list with their birthdate to figure when they'll retire.

3, 4 and 5 have been covered.

6. You'll sometimes see senior F/Os pass on an upgrade because they'll loose all the seniority they had being at the top of the F/O list. Or they may have to change bases. I know one guy in the middle of a divorce who passed so his income wouldn't go up.

7. Yes

8. If you furlough more than half your pilots, probably some Captains will be cut.

9. Guess what, just like they were F/Os and then upgraded to Captains, they can be downgraded back to F/O. Usually the downgrade school is quicker than the upgrade school.

dojetdriver

Depending on the airline, there is NO downgrade school.

One month you're a CA, the next month you're bidding FO with no training event.

slipped

Wow good post very informative thanks to all

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joepilot

If it is on the same aircraft, you are most likely correct. In many airlines you would go from captain on a small aircraft to F/O on a bigger aircraft.

Joe