FO minimums changed
 

Who else noticed the minimums changed on the FO application? I didn’t see any formal announcement but most recently it was just 2000TT. Now it looks like they’ve added a 1000 turbine component to it:


Minimum of 1,500 hours of total documented flight time.
Minimum of 1,000 hours of fixed wing turbine time (airplane and powered lift combined).
A current First Class FAA medical certificate.
FAA Commercial Pilot Certificate with Instrument - Airplane.
All aeronautical experience requirements for an ATP, Airplane category rating, as set forth in 14 CFR §61.159.
Current ATP written exam.
High school diploma or equivalent.
Must possess a valid Driver’s License.
Must possess and/or obtain a current passport with unlimited access in and out of the United States. Employees with non-U.S. passports also will need any appropriate travel documentation.
Excellent judgment, leadership skills, demonstrated command ability and maturity.
Professional demeanor and appearance.
Must be comfortable with a domicile in Seattle, WA; Los Angeles, CA; Anchorage, AK; Portland, OR; or San Francisco, CA.
Minimum 23 years of age.
Must be authorized to work in the U.S.
Ability to communicate in English.

Good luck with that. That’s essentially a regional FO with 2500 TT and 1000 121 (turbine) who is eligible for upgrade.

Alaska is a solid Legacy, but needs to compete for applicants with Delta/United/American. All things considered equal, unless they are from the PNW, they aren’t choosing Alaska.

While those quals (2500/1000) are embarrassingly low for a legacy, this is the hiring environment we are in now. They may as well just make it 1500/ATP and be more selective in the process. Hire them and then hope you can retain them.

Until Alaska gets widebody flying, the big 3 will siphon off jobs from all the LCCs and Southwest. We haven’t seen times like this since the 80s. Even if narrowbody pilots made $20k more at Alaska than a pilot at a carrier with widebody flying, widebody flying will always pay more and be easier. A redeye transcon in a 737 or a 320 will never be as lucrative or comfortable as a trans pacific flight in a widebody with crew bunks. A 3 day with Alaska’s new TA will pay 15 hours to go to the islands, but at the Majors, that same amount of days would net you 21 hours for 2 legs by flying to Asia, as you’re dozing for dollars.

The other issue is the big 3 will all lose about half of their seniority lists in the next 5-10 years. You will either be a senior FO or a junior captain there for quite a while. At Southwest, Spirit, JetBlue or Alaska, you will stagnate for a while because none of the LCCs have as many as retirements. If you go to do There are some realties that even the best contract can’t solve.

I think the new TA makes Alaska more attractive to candidates. Their will be more retention especially being in a recession currently. Bases like LA and SFO if I had to
guess have the most attrition due to so many options from the big 3 in Cali. ANC folks aren’t going anywhere for the majority although sure some will head to purple or brown. SEA and PDX if they want to stay in the PNW and not commute it’s either stay at AS or go to DL. Downside I see with DL is it could take 1-2 years to get back to the PNW depending if you get stuck on the 717. Sure widebody flying is easier and I think many will chase that. I also think a vast majority of those folks 3-5 years in who were on the fence are now going to be sticking around and it’s not predominantly new hires and junior pilots who will bounce. We’ll see what happens in a few years if this place is still even called alaska and how it and then industry looks.

I think it’s highly likely that in less than a year the SFO base will be closed in its entirety and LAX will shrink. There’s been a ridiculous number around 800 for the number of new hires at Alaska next year, that is absolutely absurd, Alaska couldn’t and wouldn’t hire that many in a booming economy with exponential growth occurring. We are already in a recession, the effects of which will begin to impact all the airlines in a real way soon, retirements at the large airlines hopefully protect jobs, Alaska doesn’t have retirements in any meaningful numbers, If we end up hiring next year it will be a fraction of the numbers floating around out there.

More predictions from the doom squad.

Where's that $200 per barrel you promised?

Do you ever post anything that’s not doom and gloom? You’ve also literally never been correct.

Have you been to an airport lately? I've never in my 20+ years of airline flying seen loads like these in September amd October. We're almost always full or close to full. Thursday through Sunday looks like Christmas Eve week after week. This is not what a recession looks like.

Incorrect. A co terminal in the bay most likely.

Load Factor
 

Good point, however what's the revenue load factor. As a retiree I sit next to other non rev's who have never worked for Alaska or any airline. F/A, ticket agents, res agents who trade out boyfriends on a yearly base & they bump you because they are flying on the employee seniority without the employee. Some airlines require the employee to always travel with the family, boy friend, parent or who ever, excellent requirement. Always amazed me how so called parents let their 15, 16, 17 year old kids fly to Mexico by themselves. When I took a walk down the malecon after dinner I encountered them well under the influence. There was the kid that flat ran out of money, no credit card, living on the street, however management was pressuring Line Pilots to put the station managers kid in the jump seat (I passed on the being stupid). Oversold passenger flights all non rev being bumped. I heard from PVR ops on my next PVR layover that a management instructor had let the kid in the jump seat.