Originally Posted by
Avgeek7248
I think the new TA makes Alaska more attractive to candidates. Their will be more retention especially being in a recession currently. Bases like LA and SFO if I had to
guess have the most attrition due to so many options from the big 3 in Cali. ANC folks aren’t going anywhere for the majority although sure some will head to purple or brown. SEA and PDX if they want to stay in the PNW and not commute it’s either stay at AS or go to DL. Downside I see with DL is it could take 1-2 years to get back to the PNW depending if you get stuck on the 717. Sure widebody flying is easier and I think many will chase that. I also think a vast majority of those folks 3-5 years in who were on the fence are now going to be sticking around and it’s not predominantly new hires and junior pilots who will bounce. We’ll see what happens in a few years if this place is still even called alaska and how it and then industry looks.
I think it’s highly likely that in less than a year the SFO base will be closed in its entirety and LAX will shrink. There’s been a ridiculous number around 800 for the number of new hires at Alaska next year, that is absolutely absurd, Alaska couldn’t and wouldn’t hire that many in a booming economy with exponential growth occurring. We are already in a recession, the effects of which will begin to impact all the airlines in a real way soon, retirements at the large airlines hopefully protect jobs, Alaska doesn’t have retirements in any meaningful numbers, If we end up hiring next year it will be a fraction of the numbers floating around out there.