Email from CP
Horizon Pilots,
I’m writing to provide you with information regarding changes being made to our Captain Upgrade Policy. Horizon’s expedited block hour growth, along with increased hiring of Horizon pilots by Alaska and other mainline carriers, has resulted in an elevated demand for Captain positions here. We currently have a projected need for around 200 new Captain positions in 2018.
How are we solving this challenge?
In order to increase our Captain supply, we are now waiving – on a case-by-case basis – the requirement of 750 operating hours at Horizon for any First Officer who wishes to bid for a Captain upgrade. Captain candidates will, however, still be required to meet the minimum flight experience as mandated by the FARs. We will continue to respect seniority in the Captain bidding process, giving priority to candidates who have met the 750-hour threshold. Candidates with less than 750 Horizon operating hours can now bid for available Captain positions. If these pilots bid for a Captain position and are likely to be successful, they will be asked to submit very minimal information about their flying history so that they can be considered for a waiver granted by John Hornibrook, VP Flight Operations, per the requirements of the Upgrade Review Committee (URC) as listed in the FOAM.
This change presents an exciting opportunity to accelerate your career as soon as you’ve met the minimum regulatory requirements. It will also allow us to offer incoming candidates who bring extensive prior experience an opportunity to bid for Captain positions as early as when they join the seniority list. This is particularly important at base locations that continue to not have enough qualified candidate bids for necessary Captain positions.
We are pleased to provide this opportunity and are also evaluating additional changes that will help shift available Captain home base vacancies to our more desired station locations while not impacting those that are based exactly where they want to be. Whenever possible, we want to open upgrade spots to match the base preference of those bidding. So, as we increase our summer flying, we will work to add more available spots to more desirable bases.
What does this mean for you?
As a current Horizon First Officer, you can now both further advance your career as well as support our operational success by continuing to increase your flight experience and actively bidding for available Captain vacancies across all locations.
· For the month of March, we are currently looking to fill 12 Captain vacancies for the Q400 across multiple base locations.
· For the year as a whole, half of our upgrade needs are for the E175. (Fake news. We're parking 15 Q400s and at least 75 Dash captains are going to volunteer or be displaced to jet CA
The bottom line? If you’re a First Officer who wants to become a Captain, bid to upgrade now, even if you have fewer than 750 hours of flight time with Horizon. We’re offering more Captain spots than ever before, and by upgrading if you are ready, you will help lay the foundation for Horizon’s growth.
Fly safe,
Carlos