So as a new hire with an upcoming class date, I'm trying to figure out what to make of this. Is this a temporary thing that was expected until staffing catches up? Is this something that United could use to walk away from the five year agreement?

 

You forgot the italics on Operational Excellence

 

The big variable is whether or not staffing will ever catch up. They wanted to grow by 500 pilots this year and we're up *maybe* 15 from the beginning of the year. The staffing problem isn't going to get better unless they put a damn good TA on the table that beats Endeavor, which is incredibly unlikely. We are critically understaffed and it doesn't seem like anyone in upper management cares.

 

I had some of my trip taken away this week. Whatever I was suppose to do was given to another carrier. Still lacking an fo for a lot of what's left too.

 

Management has been doing exactly what is expected of them. I flew with someone recently who has been with the company for a couple decades, he succinctly observed that AirWis management has always been steady and stalwart. The good news about AirWis is that there typically isn't any news. The bad news about AirWis is that there typically isn't any news.

A manager ensures the trains run on time and the donuts are made every morning.

A leader pilots the ship through change and rocky shoals. A leader is the one who faces the jungle, unsheathes his machete and says "Follow me!", blazing a new trail.

There's been a lot of change in the past year, without adequate course monitoring and correction. Management is managing just like they always have, but they're struggling with the leadership challenges of the current environment.

My $.02.

 

If you live within driving distance of MKE or ORD, this is still a fantastic company with good folks, and you are sitting on a very lucrative opportunity for the next year or so at least. You'll credit a lot, and occasionally time out in duty and/or block, probably upgrading in the company's forecasted 18mos.
If you're commuting and/or have a family, that's another story and should be approached with caution. Your schedule will not be reliable, and the impact on the family and personal life should be considered carefully.

 

Well, hmm. I'd be commuting from MSP or RST, which for ORD is about as easy as commuting gets I'd guess. MKE is a bit tougher, but it's still a one leg commute out of MSP. I'm anticipating a night before/night after/both, but it is what it is. The schedule reliability thing is a concern, for sure, but I'm kind of ok with it as a way to get more experience in a timely manner.

I'd be more concerned about the longer term impact of not being able to staff flights on the relationship between AWAC and UA. Not knowing anything about how such things work, I'd imagine there's penalties for not being able to fulfill a commitment and if that means that UA could walk away from AWAC prior to the end of the 5 year agreement.

 

That's everyone's concern as it should be as well for a new hire. This place is a gamble right now. Management maintains there's no trouble though, so it's hard to say for sure if the TA will do what's right and attempt to course correct with some raises, or if they'll maintain the status quo of, we don't have any money to give, and we continue to lose flying to airlines that can staff.

 

If anything they will just reduce our block hours to something we can handle.

 

This seems more likely to me as well. United won’t cut off their nose to spite their face. AWA can’t give us 65 a/c? Fine we will still take 50. Most UAX carriers are having some level of staffing issues, or did, or will. Could any take on 65 a/c worth of flying right now? I don’t see it. Mesa is struggling on the Ejet side and CommutAir is just now starting grow very slowly. With TSA and ExpressJet loosing AA they may have some room but they will loose pilots in the process as those AA bases close. So a maybe there. Rebublic and GoJet do not fly 50 seaters. Skywest? They already have growth plans on a few CPAs so adding even more right now maybe a bridge too far.

So even if UA wanted to, they couldn’t.

The two best things that could happen to AWA right now to attract newbies AND retain current pilots would be a very good to great TA and a new base that will help and not hurt recruitment. Denver would be a great choice. Shrink MKE in half, pull down some lines from ORD, grow IAD by 20% to help keep our current east coasters happy. DEN would have a few very senior on top of the CA list but like MKE, would fall off after that.

But us loosing the contract is not even remotely a concern of mine right now.