I mean idk if it’s true or not either, so I don’t understand your argument lol. You asked where I heard it from I told you, we sure as hell don’t have any say in if it’s true or not, so .. sure? Haha

 

The point was we’re not hiring a lot of pilots. And probably even less than what they are saying, that was all.

 

FO told me they only hired 12 this last round. Any truth to that?

 

negative look on ALPA website on the Oct 1 attrition report, 20 hired in August. If that’s what you are referring too

if You are referring to this last bid closing of the 20 those people have yet to come on property they are holding a class in Dec fo them

 

Someone told me something and it didn’t add up. I was too lazy to dive into numbers so I asked about it here. Thanks for clearing it up.

I’ll ask them about it tomorrow for inflight entertainment

 

12 or 20 pilots that churn off the bottom of the seniority list doesn’t seem significant enough to debate.

100 next year? lol ok. Heard that before. I will believe it when I see it, not before. I have been here 7+ years. Since I was hired not a single growth projection has been met. We have 4ish more tails today than we had the day I was hired. Today 737 SEA CA is going to pilots with the same TOS as those being awarded 787 SEA CA at Hawaiian. In 2023 I was senior enough to hold SEA 737 CA. Now I am over 1000 #s away. This place hasn’t just stagnated. From a career progression perspective it has imploded. 737 SEA CA at DL is about 3.5-4 yrs TOS right now. Not only have we not grown, we haven’t even hired enough pilots to match retirements, we are shrinking as a pilot group. Our contract has more holes in it than Swiss cheese and our Union is pathetic. I have zero confidence they will navigate this merger in any way that benefits the pilots that provided the labor to put Alaska in a place to purchase other companies and “grow”.

I have been privileged enough mentor several young men from disadvantaged backgrounds that want to become airline pilots. Several of them are at various stages of the Horizon Pilot development program and/or the ascend program or at Horizon itself. I have begun recommending to all of them that Alaska should be their backup airline if Delta and United don’t call. Based on their backgrounds, DL or UA will call once they have their hours. Just take the money and run, run far away.

 

Yea whether it's us or them, the new Alaska as of Oct 29 will do hiring and it will be in the 100's.
HA has almost 100 total FO's on the 78 and about. 40 Capts, for 4 planes. 8 more at least coming in next 2 years, that's a lot of hiring I would imagine.

 

this was depressing to read 😔. I’m in my early 20s working my butt off getting multi turbine in crew environment, and have a CJO with a regional. I have been gunning for Alaska since day one because I live in Seattle but I will definitely take what you said into consideration.

 

I would completely ignore what he said. I’ve never flown with anyone as disgruntled as him and GJ. Alaska is a great place to work.

 

Take what he said into consideration, but only as the book-end for the extreme pessimist view. Just about everyone upgrading now could have upgraded earlier but chose not to. The numbers that this dude is looking at don't tell you how soon they *could have* upgraded, only how long it took for it to be available to them again after they made the conscious decision not to bid for it. We have lots of planes on order. Our union is top notch. Training churn for the heavies is going to put a lot of holes in the 737 pilot roster. Upgrade for SEA 737 is 4 years at DL? We probably won't beat that, but it will be in the ballpark, provided people upgrade when it's possible and don't roll the dice on waiting like these guys did. Don't get me wrong, I think there are valid reasons to stay an FO, but if you skip the upgrade when an upgrade is available and remain an FO for 10 years, you can't turn around and then claim that the upgrade time is 10 years. It's not all doom and gloom, and most people at Alaska are not doom and gloomers.