Originally Posted by
Two-percent
Sounds like a good place to work. They hire a lot of locals. I even heard of a pilot couple from the islands who were having a tough time because the husband was offered the HA job and his wife was not because she absolutely struggled in the simulator (interview portion). Eventually they both said AMF. I have a few friends who work there and they all say you better be sure you want to live there. I visited often, imagined myself living there, and decided my family probably could not hack it (I could). My USairways buddies flying out there every week made it seem like that was a good option. Just visit. It sounds like Hawaiian will be competing for people just like everyone else in a few years. No more 5 interviews to "make sure you really want it".
I've so far flown with 8 different captains in my 2 months on the 330, of which 5 of them were commuters, including one who's an instructor. The idea that they won't hire you if you're not a local or willing to move to Oahu is left over maybe from the late 90's when they were losing pilots left and right to the other majors... those days are gone now, and HAL pays the same money, has roughly the same work rules, and in some ways better career expectations than many of the rest.
Will the hiring at DAL, WN, UA, AA and such make it harder to recruit and keep pilots? sure... will it be impossible, far from it.