Originally Posted by
Corned Beef
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.
Not a legit comparison as typically at least one of the FOs on a United/DL/AA wide-body has a high level of experience as the non-bunkie seat on wide-body there is more senior than junior 777CA here at FedEx. Junior 777CA at FedEx has probably been at FedEx less time than the most Junior A350 FO at DL.
But they've had their issues too. I think it was a United wide-body that diverted in Cold Bay with a cracked windshield and the FOs didn't even bother to wake the captain up to ask him first...
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.
A big part of being well-rounded is having real world experience.
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.
We'll see how the degree requirement relaxation goes. We're about to open up our app pool to a lot of well-rounded, highly experienced guys that couldn't come here because they didn't have a stupid piece of paper. Chances are the world will be in a recession before we burn through that pile of apps and the pool of guys with PIC time will start trending the other way again.
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.
Easy. Tell them: if FedEx is your number one, don't put your UA/DL/AA/WN/etc app in until you have the PIC to apply at FedEx. If FedEx isn't number one, apply to UA/DL/AA right away and grab that seniority there if they call first. If not, apply at FedEx when you have the PIC.
We're not the best thing since sliced bread, but right now we have plenty of people who want to be here and are willing to go get the PIC to do so. Why should we remove a layer of Swiss-cheese just to attract the people who kinda want to be here but aren't willing to hold out for 8 months to go get some PIC?