Not sure what this pilot shortage talk is all about, it will never pertain to Alaska in it's current form.

1) There will always be 10 to 20 guys/girls every other month that will come here from a worse job.
2) There are almost no plans for growth in the short term, and probably not enough to ever make them have to worry about the pipeline of pilots.
3)The retirements aren't there vs. the legacies, so the demand will never be outrageous.

SkyWest still hires 100 a month with less pay, no flow agreement, and not near as good of bonuses as some of the other regionals. If a regional can do it offering less, so can Alaska.

I'm not trying to be defeatist, but our contract improvements aren't coming from a pilot shortage. I can guarantee you that. They are going to come from us standing shoulder to shoulder and saying no to whatever s&*t they stay they can only afford.

 

Alaska doesn’t exist in a vacuum. The more desperate the other airlines get, the more vulnerable Alaska becomes. A large airline, by itself, could bring Alaska to its knees by hiring our pilots. The cumulative effect of hiring qualified pilots out of the pipeline forces Alaska to remain competitive, even if it further drops minimum hiring requirements.

 

I’ve heard this numerous times for much smaller carriers, like when Virgin was only about 600 pilots. “The legacies can shut down Virgin, all they have to do is hire all 600 pilots over 3 legacies in 6 months!” It. Never. Happens. Heard the same things about Spirit, Frontier, Allegiant, Sun Country, even jetBlue when they were smaller. It’s just pilot group think that’s not grounded in the reality of legacy airline hiring practices.

 

Hopefully, maybe the new MEC will recognize that beating the “competetive hiring” drum at a mini regional west coast major like Alaska is DOA. We need to negotiate as though we have hired our last pilot, as though growth is over, as though minimum gurantee is what all lines will pay, that reserve is here to stay. Tell Bradben to shove the growth/ hiring NDA shell game where the sun dont shine.

 

100% thumbs up
Great post

 

It would actually be illegal to blatantly, intentionally, target a competitor's employees en masse. The slots and gates (and maybe planes) would *normally* have more value than pilots, so an acquisition would normally be how it would go down.

But if the shortage gets bad enough, there's nothing to stop them from hiring any who bother to apply if they have reasonably competitive resumes... and by definition most AS pilots should have decent resumes (compared to CFI's or noob regional FO's).

 

I’d add that every form of Alaska’s demise has been repeated over and over on these boards for years now. We’re getting bought, we’re not attracting pilots, the pilots are leaving en mass etc. etc. None of it happens. All talk by a handful of folks. Any real, major shift at this company will have to come from within, and guys have to stop daydreaming about outside help. Love it or hate it, the reality is, Alaska holds it own and will continue to operate. Regurgitating the meat of the dead horse beaten to death by the drumstick is nothing more than a coping mechanism. Every single thread ends up being the same conversation. Groundhog Day

 

It is both a relief and a source of concern that the same conversation seems to appear on EVERY thread. But this is an APC “feature.” I expect such lines are similarly represented on truck driver and brain surgeon forums.

That aside, for all of non-legacy pilots hoping to move to bigger iron living on the left coast, is there some compelling reason to cross AAG off of our list?

 

Folks may find reasons not to come to Alaska but there’s nothing said on these forums driving those decisions. You’re right that the same arguments take place the world over. Every airline on this website has pages full of contempt. I have guys knocking my door down asking for help to get on with AS for the very reasons stated earlier. There will always be worse places to work and each individual will decide their definition of “worse”. So while, one person may find AS an unsuitable place to work, there are 10 more behind him/her champing at the bit. I’m not here to rob anyone of their coping mechanisms, however, instead of just repeatedly chanting about what’s broken maybe offer up some fixes too. Openers start soon.

 

Thanks for the helpful and practical take.

For my part, I’ve been impressed with the AS people I’ve met, and I could drive to work there—if nothing else, that time not spent commuting gives me time to work on other things if this piloting stuff doesn’t work out.

Every airline is subject to market forces, strategic issues, and unforced errors, and I’ve never heard anyone tout their contract as perfect. I suspect for each of us, it’s a matter of prioritizing “what matters to me,” and going for it. Hopefully we each find our respective “happy place.”