Originally Posted by
SFORedwood
I’ve been offered an early February orientation date. I’m on the fence about all of this puzzle. Can someone with some insight about future direct entry captains answer a couple questions? I would like to know how many they are proposing on hiring so I can have some idea of whether i’ll be the last guy, so to speak. Do you know how many classes they run per month or per week and how many people are generally in a class? How many direct entry pilots were in the January classes? Lastly, what is the probability of getting ORD as a base?
It's funny, Envoy talks about quality of life, but there is a huge difference between being based in MIA vs DFW vs ORD, seems they would want to try & give you your preference of bases.....
I get that i'll probably be on reserve at the airport for a long time, but i'd rather be in a base where I know people.
What you get as a base is just like anywhere else in a seniority driven system. Junior captain in MIA was hired in December 2019. You can’t get something as a new hire that someone who’s been with the company three years can’t hold. ORD and DFW are now junior and being offered to DECs.
Sounds like they are still doing orientations once a month, but don’t have firsthand knowledge. Actual classes are every two weeks. Can’t say how long to get an orientation or from orientation to actual class. The emphasis is still very much on hiring DECs. If you read a few months back, someone said the goal was 500 DECs in 2023. I think Envoy is being VERY optimistic if they think they can hire anything close to that for DECs. They were honestly banking on Mesa being crippled and hiring everyone away. That’s not happening. Just how many they can actually hire is anyone’s guess as the pool of available people is obviously dwindling and with so many other companies offering more competitive packages, fewer people will jump ship as well as have more options elsewhere. Either way, you can expect to be on reserve for a couple of years as a DEC. Just a matter of how bad it will be is based on just how many they can actually hire behind you. As I said, they have lofty goals, but just don’t see that coming to fruition.