Originally Posted by
cadetdrivr
Not worried in the least. It's just history repeating.
In the late 1960's UAL hired a wave of pilots that only had private licenses and UAL actually ran a flight school to get commercial/multi ratings. Those guys retired as 747 CAs.
Between 1988 and 1995, UAL hired a wave of interns when UAL's minimums were 350TT. (Although UAL's published minimums didn't change, UAL smartly looked for more experience starting in '95.) We have plenty of CAs flying the system daily that were hired with less than 1000TT and zero turbine.
IMHO, this AVIATE program is much better structured than either of those earlier schemes.
I'd much rather have low time (3000TT), but very well trained, new-hires flying with experienced CAs at mainline than the situation at Express with marginally trained 1500hr single-engine FOs flying with CAs that were hired six months earlier.
It's all about the crew pairing. Train them right, mentor the culture, and the sharp young pilots will soak it up like a sponge.
Lots of info but they did the same thing in 78-79 and 85-89 as far as low time goes. Don't get me wrong I am not saying this was all or most but UAL always hires a wide mix as far as time goes. I am not agreeing or disagreeing with how they hire but it has gone on for a long time.