Originally Posted by
gloopy
Although I'd prefer a monthly bid, either way they do it still results in a similar to identical physical training pipeline/bottleneck. That is why they can go Jack Spratt all they want on staffing but they better get ahead of the upcoming retirement curve soon because once the wave starts, and no one really knows when it will, lean categories like we have today will see mass cancellations and even "properly manned" categories will be hurting.
We will need more bodies and training infrastructure and odds are we will need both before the mandatory numbers hit critical mass. I think the company knows this and there is the often rumored battle of wits between running very lean and preparing for the inevitable but the time in the lean happy time fun zone is coming to an end and we will not be able to wait until it fully hits to prepare for it.
My point about going to a monthly bid was that, maybe, the company could better regulate the amount of training being assigned each month and avoid having more pilots sitting at home waiting for training to begin after the last conversion date of the current AE system.
The company is definitely going to have to increase the training footprint when guys start retiring. Unfortunately that is a BIG when........ They need to be looking at this very seriously and start hiring
before this happens. I don't want a repeat of what happened when guys took early retirement just before bankruptcy and we (ALPA) agreed to the PRP (post retirement pilot) debacle.
Denny