Originally Posted by
KNOTAPILOT
LOL you gotta be trolling. There’s a reason so many regional FOs only use spirit as a type ride to get a call from the legacy carrier. Everyone talking about QOL at spirit like there isn’t an attrition problem with pilots leaving to other airlines that don’t have the dropping to zero stuff everyone is raving about. So no a spirit airline pilot should not gain any relative seniority, even keeping it a relative seniority shuffle favors the spirit pilots massively. There should also be a slight factor of what airline is getting purchased added to it. I know so many think the ULCC is a way of life but again Spirit is getting purchased. CASH! Not as high and mighty as you may think.
So what I read in this is that JetBlue should have the advantage since they’re a superior airline? The poster is correct, based on Spirit’s order book relative to its size, a Spirit pilot currently has higher career expectations (ie seniority gain) than a JB pilot with JetBlue’s total orders relative to its size. It is what it is. The fact that regional FOs use NK as a rating factory has absolutely zero bearing on the integration other than the fact it apparently makes you feel good to point it out.
By comparison, in a NK and F9 marriage, the F9 pilots would have have greater career expectations than NK pilots. F9 is smaller, yet has a larger order book resulting in higher seniority gain for a current pilot.
I do agree with you that the purchasing airline’s pilot group should gain a slight edge, but it should be negligible. ALPA has their merger policy and it will be followed if the time comes. I don’t think, however, it considers which airline’s passengers have the nicer carryon luggage.