Originally Posted by
Lambourne
I did not delve into any comparison to skills of the civ versus mil. When it comes down to being equal in a decision on the pilot to hire, the CIV pilot will cost the company less. The MIL pilot will miss time from the company duty and will still be given B/C fund contributions. The company needs to hire pilots that will be available to fly. MIL pilots are often unavailable. It is strictly a cost and availability issue.
And just like crew planning/staffing departments takes into account the "averages" of sick calls, OJI's, retirements, training events and whatever else can pull a pilot out offline, it gets taken into account in the PFM of "it takes X amount of pilots to staff Y amount of block hours/segments". And in typical airline (mis)management fashion, DOESN'T mean they get it right.
So although it can create somewhat of a challenge for staffing purposes, it HARDLY factors into a decision of whether or not they'd want to hire mil guard/reserve pilots.
Look at many of the OTS hires at DAL, seems as if a high percentage of them are mil due to much of the civ demographic coming from flows and the SSP. And it's probably safe to say that not ALL of them are separated with NO reserve/guard commitment.