Originally Posted by
threeighteen
No.
Part of being a good candidate is having PIC experience. The last thing you want to do as a 777 or MD-11 CA is head to the bunk to take a nap when you have two new-hire FOs sitting in the window seats with 0 PIC time and maybe 1000hrs of SIC time in a turbine aircraft but got hired because they got a PE from their parents or brother or whatever and the rest of their resume checks a bunch of boxes for HR. A good training department can't completely make up for a lack of experience.
The problem with getting rid of the requirement is that once you do, the doors *do* open to hiring everyone and their mother without PIC time whether you like that or not.
With PIC experience being so abundant right now at the regional level, if FedEx is someone's number one, there's no reason why they can't get it within 6-8 months. And if someone would rather go to Delta instead of grab some PIC, I'm not sure if we're missing out by not hiring them since their actions say that they don't actually want to be here anyway.
Let's let the legacies scrape the bottom of the barrel and we can continue pick off the experienced pilots we like from them. And let's fight hard to make sure we get the contract that we deserve so we can continue to do that.
ahh yes, the old "experience is king". Be careful on those international deadheads then, because UL/DL have zero PIC FO's in their widebodies and they just might fall out of the sky with those low experience pilots! Typical old school thought process.
I don't think we would be "scraping the bottom" if we snagged low time or zero time PIC pilots that are well rounded candidates that bring more than just experience to the table. I'll reiterate, training is key.
At the end of the day, FDX will hire at the ATP minimums if they have to to keep their airline running, it's all market driven, not what the training department or what we want. We're still hitting our hiring minimums at this time, but I do think it's a matter of if not when we drop this.
And I gotta add, how could you tell someone to wait 8 months to build pic time to come here when they got a call from United or Delta? the majority would run for the hills and get the seniority because that is what is king in this industry. We certainly have a good gig here at fedex but I don’t think we’re the best thing since sliced bread.