Itsajob

There are more voters who get upset from bailouts than those who benefit from them.

dremaldent

It will have to start well before September 30th. Congress will need to pass a law authorizing additional funding. I'm not saying it won't happen, but it's not as simple as just granting more money. The good news is that we will have to furlough far less in October than we would have had to now. So this is still very good news.

flypilot

Where my airman trainees at?! Whoop Whoop!

How many of us are left? Wondering how many took the buy-out... It didn't matter to me, I had just made it through the technical interview when the rug got pulled out. Now I wait for things to recover for them to call me in for training. I'm optimistic though that with the economy improving, airlines limiting capacity to 70% and the daily TSA counts inching up each day, that combined with the shortage of pilot AW had before this started that maybe I'll get that call by the end of the year. Am I crazy? Probably... But I'm a glass half full kind of person.

Wondering if they'll keep the AT program, or if it will be dismantled come September.

dremaldent

Your guess is as good as mine, but with all the buyouts at mainline... Well they're going to need to replace those pilots somehow. It'll take some time, but I think the company would be foolish to give up on the AT program entirely. It's a nearly free recruitment tool, and the need for regional pilots will still be there in the future eventually.

VegasChris

Still here. They made it pretty clear the program ends by October. I am in the same spot as you. Had a class date and ATP/CTP scheduled after the technical interview.

Reading the forums and trying to sift through the crap I am thinking best case scenario is fall of 2021- and that's if they are hiring people at minimums. Right now there are legacy pilots taking 135 jobs and regional guys taking CFI gigs.

Jobs numbers look good. Maybe the rebound will be faster than everyone thinks. All we can do is sit and wait....and try to use these travel benefits.

Who knows if the CRJ-200 will even be flying then. Its now a waiting game, I am just sitting back and enjoying the ride

flypilot

I'm not 100% certain that they will end it in October, on my call last month (not this month), they asked for input on how to make the AT program better in the future as they re-tool it. That may be smoke and mirrors and wishful thinking, but why ask for feedback if they are going to totally dismantle it?

I'm thinking about taking an ATP/CTP course and paying for it on my own dime, wondering if once things get fired back up it might make me pop to the top of the list, if not with AW then someone else...

RabidW0mbat

unless you have a silver spoon, I wouldn’t spend my own money on the atp/ctp just yet. It would be like paying for a type rating out of your own pocket. Yeah you have the type, but without time in type it won’t really help you.

IDriveJets

listen to the Wombat everyone! He knows what he’s talking about!

VegasChris

Not sure, maybe it will get revamped. I hope it continues until hiring comes back, but no point in recruiting if they aren't hiring. No point in hiring if UA is going to end the CRJ200 flying.

As far as ATP/CTP goes I see a bunch of ex military paying for it out of pocket with their GI Bill......so its not really out of pocket. I will evaluate if it is worth the 5k to pay for it when the hiring starts again if they hiring guys with the same times as me that have it done. I am wondering if minimums will even be competitive.

I am a career changer from firefighter to pilot and I based my decision on a cost benefit analysis. If its going to cost me more to get more hours and pay for my own CTP course the benefits are going to have to get better. Also what concessions are made by the legacy unions (where I ultimately need to end up) is also something I will be paying attention to.

All of it is out of my control right now. I will be watching to see what happens in the fall of this year and I am hoping for hiring entry level people into the regionals to happen sometime in mid to late 2021.

Excargodog

The real issue here, if you are looking at any of the Big Three, is their international flying. Domestic flying is coming back. It’ll be 95% of normal by Christmas, barring a major recurrence of coronavirus. But international flying looks to come back at a slower pace - much slower. And this causes a dilemma for the Big Three, because the people flying their international flying are - generally speaking - senior to the people flying their domestic flying. And that means they furlough their junior people and before they can even do that they incur huge training costs to train the senior people (whose previous type to the one they are in now was probably a 727) to learn to fly 737s, A220s, and A320s. And before they even do that, they need to get rid of their older 757s, MDs and 717s or things will be even worse. And of course, that affects scope which restricts the amount of regional flying they can do.

so you wind up with a lot of junior Major guys on the street and decreased regional flying, which will persist until international flying picks up when they will reverse the process, bringing back the furloughed junior guys and then, only after international flying is restored, starting to add capacity that will allow them to start regional flying back up at preCOVID levels and hire back the junior regional guys.

Opportunities for those not-yet with even a regional seniority number are probably going to take a two year hiatus. It sucks, but it’s probably reality.

And after that, yeah, the majors have all those retirements coming, but SWA, F9, NK, and Breeze are probably going to be stealing market share from them - at least in the short term. And bankruptcy for one or more of the Big Three is a real possibility. The jobs won’t actually go away mostly, but a bankruptcy can really squeeze down pay and benefits.

It might have been better had not the US over reacted as bad to COVID as they did, but it’s too late now.