Originally Posted by
C5nwhaleguy
Hiring is great news but the company should also address how they might keep some of the young pups here. Contract, training center "career day", pay rates compared to other majors wide body rates, Atlas defined "vacation", trip trade joke, retirement match, 17 day min, lack of solidarity amongst the pilot group, just to name a few. I plan to stay as i'm hopeful that we newbies can bring the change from the old guard so to speak, but want to know how we can keep the door from revolving lower down....i know of some that have been looking to jump ship for the last few years...how about some others whom have been hired in the last few years...what are your classmates doing/saying? will we as unioin members even be able to vote or will the deal be inked by a select few....nice rant ehh
I would give it a 9.2. Pretty good rant.
But here is the thing. The company has a stack of resumes a mile high and guys beating on the door trying to get an interview. Attrition appears to be virtually zero. And any airline management will tell you that "pilots always *****" (which is true).
So from their standpoint things are fine, and they will continue to be "fine" until people actually start to leave.
Oh, and with every hiring cycle the "newbies" are going to push out the "old guard" and "fix things". The company is now of an age where some of the old farts used to the new guys who were going to "fix things". It is as predictable as missing sandwich trays in JFK.
But things are getting better in both the airline and the union; year by year. Sometimes at a glacial pace, but it is moving in the right direction. However the blind enthusiasum of applicants that is seen on this thread just sets people up for frustration and disappointment.
At the end of the day this place is what it is -- an ACMI and charter company. And until it has a business model that locks down the schedule it will continue to have that odor of bottom feeder, and an army of newbies is not going to be able to change that.