Originally Posted by
Climbto450
I agree with you about the financial side, this company has a lot of "bandwidth" to keep pilots here. As for the reasons people are leaving they are all across the board. The opportunities that a diverse fleet with wide bodies offer a pilot group and geographic vicinity to a crew base in relation to where the pilots live are by far the biggest reasons pilots are leaving. Yes there are other reasons but those seem to be what gets spoken about the most. I fly with plenty of FO's on their way out and that seems to be the narrative.
As for the last sentence. I don't have a clue what talking points you are talking about. I have outlook sending all corp comm emails above CL's stuff right into it's own folder that I purge weekly.. Stopped reading that 💩 years ago.
I need to say this part again. There was a time in recent memory where the average SWA W2 was higher than most legacy guys. Yet SWA didn't have widebody aircraft, and attrition at that time was not significant from SWA to the legacy airlines.
Pilots don't LIKE to start over once they have a year or two at a "major". Fly from a JB base to just about any legacy base and you will almost certainly have JB pilots commuting home or to work. Many of those pilots didn't even apply to said legacy, or stopped updating their apps after a year or 2, in the past anyway. These guys that live in other airline bases CAN be kept. Not all, but many if not most WOULD stay, if the W2 was there and the QOL was there and the airline had a RUDDER, and a captain that wasn't a pirate.
Saying that dudes are leaving for wide-bodies and bases is mostly disingenuous, or at least an incomplete explanation. JB isn't doing the most basic things needed to keep these guys, so they have ALL the other reasons to leave INCLUDING wide-bodies and bases. When your pay, profit sharing, seniority movement, vacation weeks, operational integrity AND wide-bodies + bases are available, why not leave?
Like I said, operate BOS-CLT or MSP or DTW or ORD or ATL or DEN or DFW and you will almost certainly have a JB pilot commuting, some have been here 5-10-15+ years. You CAN keep them, but not the way the airline/operation is currently being run or with the pay, profit sharing, reserve grids, garbage pairings, etc...