The Latest going around Mesabaland, from an official company XJ memo dated 5/24/05:
Since the CRJ announcement, our department has been getting a lot of calls regarding staffing and how the training timeline will work as we place the CRJs into service. I wanted to take this time to share with you what will happen over the next few months.
CRJ Domicile / 1st CRJ Class
Currently, we still have not decided on a base for the CRJ and hopefully by early June, we will have selected the crew domicile. Once a domicile has been selected, we will update the pilot Preference Bid form on Mymesaba to include the CRJ base. The initial cadre (LCA and APD) for the CRJ will take place in July.
Starting in August, there will be two classes a month for the CRJ and the combined classes in August will consist of 12 CA and 12 FO. This training will take place in Montreal, Canada and the vacancy notice for the first class should be published by late June or early July.
Class Dates / Size
ARJ CA – one class a month through November.
CRJ CA – two classes a month starting in August through end of our Fiscal year.
SF3 CA – two classes a month from June to September then we will switch back to one class per month.
New Hires – one class a month on ARJ and SF3 through the end of our Fiscal year (March 2006). For the CRJ, two classes per month starting in August going through the end of our Fiscal year.
Here are the numbers of pilots who will be trained for each position from July through December 2005:
ARJ CA Upgrades 35
SF3 CA Upgrades 60
CRJ CA Upgrades 65
New Hires 110
** Please Note: These numbers could change due to attrition, block hours received from NWA, and which pilots receive the upgrades. **
Vacation Cancellations
The reason for vacation cancellations this summer is due to the CRJ announcement. Mesaba has a very tight time line, about six months, to place the CRJ into service. Due to this short time-line we have limited
options to complete the necessary training for the new airplane and be able to back-fill those positions quickly enough to maintain our current operations. Mesaba did take a pro-active approach to this situation in late February and early March by increasing the upgrades to the captain ranks and also increasing the new hire numbers without knowing whether or not Mesaba was going to receive the CRJ award. We hope the vacation cancellations will be done by the end of summer.
Hopefully, this has given you a better idea of what will be happening over the next few months in the staffing/ training environment. Please feel free to contact Crew Planning if you have any more questions.
Thank You,
Manager – Crew Planning