Kapitanleutnant

Would like some thoughts from you fractional drivers on the next year or two regards the seemingly huge hiring spree the majors may be startingin the next 12 months.... Vs the recall of fractional pilots.

Is the thinking that the fractionals might find themselves short of qualified apps due to what I would imagine might be a hiring drive by the majors..... Or would you think the fractionals offer a pretty decent living and work schedule to keep many at thefractionals?

Thanks for your thoughts fom the inside

Kap

UCLAbruins

I'll give you my point of view from a Netjeter

"short of qualified apps" No, not sure where that came from

There is no retirement age here at Netjets so we have a bunch of old guys who are not going anywhere, they're slowing down the show, but they don't seem to care. No upgrades, zero growth, so most of our young F/Os are looking at the majors

If you're a captain here, you're probably not going anywhere. We have a few who think the company is in trouble and might not survive, they're looking at other flight departments, but when it comes down to pulling the trigger (resigning) they don't, they usually stay

Me personally, I'm happy here, I'm a 38 year old F/O on the G-V/550. The company has been good to me, I've done stuff here I could never do with the airlines, I've been to places like the Ukraine, Romania, Croatia, Morocco, Mongolia, Latvia, hell even Greenland.. If I do leave, it will be to a top notch flight department, not an airline

you make more at the majors than at Netjets, but everything is free for us (benefits, crew-meals, uniforms, get reinbursed for our medicals) and the freedom to live wherever we want.

I have no plans of leaving, but I do keep my resume up todate just incase

MilitaryAV8R

The OP has a very good question and one that I have been wondering for a while now. Given that right now it seems that many fractional companies have people on furlough and there is not much hiring forecast for a while, could possibly people jumping to Majors change that sooner than expected?

I currently fly Cessna Citations in the Military for VIP support. I know something about this lifestyle and feel I would rather it over the Majors. Indeed the pay will not be quite as high but as UCLA said, there are things you can do and places you can go as VIP transport that you would never go as a pilot at the Majors. I flew VIP out of Germany for 3 years and can tell you it was the BEST flying I have done in my 20 year career. Also, flying for the US Government, I have flown some very interesting people that I sit back and read about in the papers and see on TV. There is nothing I can compare flying VIP transport to. I love it.

I am with the OP. I am patiently waiting, fingers crossed, watching for when the fractionals start hiring again. I want to get in as soon as I can and stay for the rest of my career.

frmrdashtrash

I can't speak for the other fracs, but UCLA pretty much hit it with NJA. I'm one of almost 500 on furlough. When the legacy carriers start hiring you will see some NJA F/Os bail for bigger jets. That attrition will probably eliminate the threat of furlough #2 there if that talk is even still going on. Not too many captains will bail.

Future retirements will bring back a few furloughed guys,but recalls en masse won't happen for another 3-5 years IF the economy recovers. Hiring? Anyone's guess, but not until they have exhausted the recall list, and that's going to take a while.

Triumph

I'm near the bottom of the 500 furloughed from NJA, and my guess is that it will be the better part of a decade before they recall my number, if they ever do.

wmuflyboy

Can I ask what you guys are doing in the meantime? Did you find other jobs?

UCLAbruins

Most of the NJI guys found Gulfstream jobs right away. I still keep in touch with some of them. They liked NJI, they really enjoyed the job and they didn't want to do the flight department thing again.... However some of them said they're not coming back "to fly a Phenom", they've pretty much given up on Netjets.

A couple others said they'd comeback ONLY if they can get into a CL300, CL605 or Global (once the Gulfstreams) are gone, otherwise "they're done" with Netjets.

kingairfun

What has been said here seems pretty accurate. SIC's will leave for majors (but they will be in serious competition with 10+ year RJ drivers with many connections and loads of time)

There may be some recalls due to attrition. But the whole list will take a long long time to go through. Hiring.... IMO 2020 would be on the early side...


I will not be returning, and I know a few others who most likely won't return. I did an analysis of what my career expectation would be at NJA... I came up with:

A very long time in the right seat
most likely coming back to a Phenom 300
A long time working the 18 day ( I hate 7/7) for less than $100K as an SIC
The company is not and will not be the same as when I left..

After looking at the cons, I resigned the # to roll over my 401k

prior121

I also have this question and mean it with no disrespect..

But how competitive is a corporate guy when you compare him to the thousands of RJ drivers out there wanting to move up to the Majors?

UCLAbruins

It depends on what aircraft you fly. If you're an F/O at Netjets and you're on the Falcon 2000, G-200 or Citation X and you've been to Hawaii, Central and South America and maybe the U.K, you'd be competitive against an RJ captain.

If you're an F/O on the Hawker, Xcel, Ultra, then I don't know

Also if you're a senior F/O at NJA, senior enough where the Global 5000/6000 is within reach, I'd definitely stay and try to get into fleet