Originally Posted by
rickair7777
The biggest hangup with SFO is pilot retention, that was an ongoing trainwreck with company-wide ramifications up until Feb. AS was taking regional pilots, giving them a NB type or two with ETOPS and then assigning them to the junior base, effectively serving them up on a silver platter to UAL.
Nobody in their right mind would stay, unless they live in ANC and absolutely want to eventually be based at home. I've met several ex-AS pilots commuting to SFO from PDX, so even PDX won't keep them.
But I guess having a WB option in SFO might mitigate the bleeding just a bit. But it's still going to be hard to compete with UAL, which will be hiring for at least anothe decade.
Again it's not just about SFO, almost all new-hires go to SFO and the majority then resign within a year.
This just is what it is.
OAK and BWI are junior for SWA. SFO and EWR are junior for UAL. SFO is junior for AS. I can go on and on but every airline has trouble staffing these bases. Pilots getting based in SFO with AS then suddenly leaving for UAL isn't because they were SFO based. They were going to leave no matter what. Alaska needs to get ahead of hiring and be in front of the CJO pipeline. I know several pilots who wanted to go to AS that were SFO based and AS never called. UAL did so off they went. Those who wanted to go to UAL but AS hired them, were going to leave no matter what. There is also an entitlement with younger pilots that if they aren't getting hired and automatically getting upgraded, holding a line and/or flying a widebody, they leave because the "grass is greener". We have moved on from SJS to shiny company syndrome, yet none of these young pilots remember how these big companies operate when crap hits the fan.
Junior bases can be junior bases for a whole host of reasons and every airline has trouble keeping them properly staffed. Alaska is not unique to that.