Originally Posted by
NeverHome
I largely agree with you. Especially the canary in the mine. However strong regionals are miles ahead of TSA and holdings. Previous poor business dealings are catch-up with Hulas carriers. When you look at largely successful regionals (Skywest, envoy, and republic these days) and then you compare that to holdings, you see night and day differences. True that there is a difference between private and public companies, but the way that good companies manage and handle resources (and Human Resources) is where I see the trouble. Specifically TSA does not value its pilot group. That showed when I was there and it shows now. For example- look to the contract negotiations. In this market? It’s a joke. But I no longer have a dog in that fight. I wish every crew member under TSA leadership and holdings the best.
Yep the contract situation demonstrates how much trouble we are in. The main reason why they are canceling classes is an inability to get people through training in a reasonable time. This is due to a lack of instructors and check airmen. The training department is a mess. They have a hard time getting instructors and are begging for them all the time. There is no language in the CBA that covers instructors so the company can run roughshod over them. When our negotiators tried to get language in the new contract to cover instructors it was denied because staffing is fine and we don't need it. Our instructors, LCAs, and APDs are the lowest paid in the industry by far. Several instructors have been so fed up they have gone back to flying the line. A lot of the helo guys they hired are getting close to 1000 hours 121 and are bouncing to better jobs rather than upgrade. All these new FOs talking about being "fat" on FOs don't realize we are in winter schedules now. There is plenty of open time right now for pickup. Just wait until April and May get here and bring the summer schedules and higher utilization on the aircraft. We'll be critically staffed on FOs and CAs by May. Just wait. We'll be back to Junior Manning FOs like crazy and 200% for FOs very soon.
Its deja vu all over again at TSA.