Originally Posted by
Lurchi
what does this mean for hiring going forward? 1000 pilots over manned sounds like a year or more of no hiring to allow 1000 pilots to retire or leave the company. Or maybe it means no hiring now to get things organized then a surge of hiring next year.....any thoughts from someone who understands this? I'm still waiting for a training date with United....is this the writing on the wall to seek employment at Delta instead? how could United possibly be this messed up while everyone else is hiring?
Step back from the ledge!
The winter flying is always down from the summer flying, especially at UA. So, the minimum numbers for a bid with a Fall/winter effective date can be low. More importantly, the minimum numbers on that sheet could be zero's across the board if the company wanted. That would not be complying with the spirit of the contract, but the company is allowed to state whatever minimum they want.
There is a new guy in charge of Manpower Planning (he previously did this job, but that was before the Min/Max bulletin requirement) and he is being extremely cautious with the Min numbers in the Min/Max sheet. Why? because he can and it costs him nothing! It is an easy way to protect himself while he still has a bunch of displacements to contend with off of SFO 747 and IAH 787.
This is certainly frustrating for those of us on the inside as well, as the Min/Max sheet is supposed to give you an idea of where the company would like to go with staffing. But in this case every single 757/767 min number is exactly 20 below the current staffing. So, all they did was throw a number down on the sheet that made sure they wouldn't have to backfill any 767 folks that took the 777 Capt bid. Does that mean we won't have any 767 Capt bids for months to come, NO! It just means they are comfortable with the 767 Capt numbers for the winter months and once this bid and all the displacements happen next month, they will be able to start having bids again that are filling in the gaps that remain after the dust settled. I fully expect we will be back with large monthly vacancy bids all through the Fall and Winter to get ready for next summer.
9 777-300s in the last 6 months, 5 more 777-300s coming this summer, and 3 beyond that for summer of 18. 2 787s this year, 1 more 787 coming this summer (allowing LAX-SIN this fall) and 4 more coming Dec-Feb. Yes, the parking of the 747 fleet has created turmoil, yes closing IAH 787 has created turmoil, but don't turn that into a downturn in the direction of hiring. Does it suck right now because of the uncertainty? YES! But the training center is going to be bursting at the seems this Fall with the fallout from the fleet parking/shift, and then it will be bursting at the seems over the Winter and Spring to get everything else up to where it needs to be by summer of 18.