Originally Posted by Scott Day

What are we doing about attrition?


We have had a lot of questions about attrition and what are we doing about it.

As I mentioned we were at an industry meeting last week where I met with all the hiring managers and chief pilots from most of the US airlines. Attrition was one of the main topics, all airlines are experiencing this and at rates we have never seen before. I do talk with most of the FO’s that leave and there are three main reasons they choose to leave.

The ability to fly heavy aircraft.
Location of bases.
Negativity in the flight decks.

This third reason really bothers me.

Typically, an attriting pilot is very complimentary of our training department and the instructors they work with. Once on the line, there tends to be some negativity about our airline and a new pilot is getting asked “why would you ever come fly here?”; “you should leave”; and constant negativity. I know this is a very small percentage of our Captains but disappointing none the less.

A pilot comes to us because they want to be here. I remember getting hired and the excitement of being out on the line as a new FO. Thankfully I had great mentors that were positive and helpful. Please help me and help our airline with being positive and inclusive with our new pilots. Make them feel welcome and reassure them they have made a great choice to spend their career here at Alaska. I know we are not perfect, but we have a very solid airline that will serve us very well. This week we hired a pilot from another major airline. He was originally with Horizon. He said to me and his new hire class that it is great to be back at air group. We have a really good thing going here compared to his experience this past year.