Originally Posted by
ZeroTT
there’s tons of demand for low-wage pilot labor.
the problem is supply. In particular supply of high-experience, low-wage labor. You can keep shoveling noobs in the front of the factory, but you need people to stay 6/8/10 years for the system to be self-sustaining with captains and LCA’s.
the current hiring environment makes that impossible for the system as a whole. Skywest has a core of lifers and isn’t constrained by a union contract - they might survive. But what does a carrier do when 3/4 of their LCA’s suddenly leave? The fed can’t buy LCA bonds to goose the supply.
At some point (soon) some unlucky carrier will be the first to park planes. And whichever major loses lift will start throwing money at the problem… probably at the still functioning carriers to keep them functioning. Whoever trips first will get left behind.
A question to others on this board. I retired from mainline AA as a pilot 3 years ago, and I don't know the specifics of the flow program. In an effort to educate myself, I went on the web sites of the 3 wholly owned, Envoy, PSA and Piedmont, to see if I could garner any information. On the Envoy website, the concept of a "Flow" program is noticeably absent. It is prominent on the PSA and Piedmont recruitment section.
Is the lack of a "defined flow program" for Envoy a negotiating roadblock with Envoy? Is the company holding this out on the basis of satisfactory conclusion of contract talks? It was my understanding, and it could be wrong, that the flow program was just that. A program, not contractually mandated or defined, and therefore subject to any modification or out and out cancellation by the company.
Can someone tell me what the status of the "flow" program is at Envoy and if it is a contractual item with any wholly owned carrier? I'm just trying to educate myself here.