Fewer retirements have ensured long upgrade times at WN but there was always ample income opportunity with premium open time. Is it true that senior guys are now slugging it out over straight pay due to over-staffing(?) Very unlike the lean old Southwest Trailways to overstaff and I'm hearing the hiring isn't slowing down in 2019. Temporary or is WN permanently moving to a traditional staffing model with more reserves? Ramping up for HI? Hoarding the dwindling number of pilots left out there? What is your management and/or union saying about conditions going forward?
SW is a great brand and stable place to work with its strong domestic focus and balance sheet but it's outgrown it's folksy-fun culture with size and corporate feel and like others, it's a job, and a demanding one from what I hear. Without the income potential to make up the ~$30/hour difference from legacy FO pay (years 1-4), I'm curious as to what SWA HR feels makes them competitive to the dwindling pool of candidates(?).
Flow through programs, wide bodies and quick upgrades ensure legacies are getting the lion share of regional guys, and what's left (ever-dwindling military/corporate) are lured by what appears ON PAPER to be better pay offered at Legacies and Freight. Even second tier ULCCs are offering ballpark compensation with better equipment, quicker upgrades, home every night, etc.
Again, the variable being income opportunity, just wondering whether WN management realizes they're no longer seen as the mid 2000's destination of choice and are trying to get what they can before word gets out.
No flame, honest questions.
Last edited by dawgdriver; 11-21-2018 at 08:55 AM.