pilot2804

What about being 30, single, and thinking long term aviation career? AA or SWA?

Every airline is going to have their ups and downs- just like the market.

dera

This guy will have a) one heck of a career, and b) must have one heck of a resume!

Name User

You never really know. In 2035 Boeing and Airbus might release an airplane guided from the ground only. We very well could have the last of the two pilot crew on property now.

Just think back 30 years ago and how many things have already changed. Talking to someone via video on a handheld device was litterally star trek level thinking back then.

"Never say never"

Name User

Not really totally accurate. SWA and Delta have consistently been good. SWA in particular. They have good management bones. I would actually include Spirit in that list as well. But, I know they don't get a lot of street cred. They continue to knock it out of the park in terms of financial performance. Their CASM-ex is actually decreasing even after the new pilot contract. Unless they are cooking the numbers they are operating cheaper YOY. I just don't see how, long term, the other carriers will be able to compete. Think what Walmart, or Amazon, did to the consumer retailing business.

Sliceback

I think he was 24 when he got hired. Maybe 23(?) when he interviewed. 4000 TT, started flying professionally at a young age (18 or 19?) lots of turbine time, King Air PIC since he was 21(?), E-175 FO when he got hired. Guys who’d flown with him spoke very highly of him. And he got a degree while flying for a living. That’s what I recommend to self motivated young people.

Sliceback

Delta has been consistently good? Why’d they go into BK then? Why did so many guys retire early which skewed the career advancements of the guys behind them forward?

dera

That's impressive. Puts some of the whiners here to shame.

dera

Never say never, but that's highly unlikely. It takes around 10 years to develop a "traditional" airliner, and nothing of that caliber is even in serious development right now.
2035 might be realistic for some single pilot planes, and this guy will be a top dog captain by then.

Sliceback

Part of being competitive is being more competitive than your peers. I tell young guys not to compete against older guys, compete against their peers. This guy did it.

full of luv

Yes, the late 90's was a case where Delta mgmt tried to out cheap all the domestic startup's and other legacies. There was much MORE competition then so in the early 2000's when oil spiked, really only SWA was positioned well with cash to crush the competition with their oil hedges while everyone else paid full freight for oil with much declined revenues.
SWA NEVER had pensions, so in the end, it was probably inevitable that those would become history in the pax pilot profession. (Funny too because most other airline non-pilot employees still have pensions).

After the BK, Delta mgmt mostly decided that it would be better to offer a better product (on time, never canx, nice clubs, etc) to the highest paying pax and try for a revenue premium instead of just trying to offer the lowest fare in every market. So far that strategy has worked well since the last near decade, but really hasn't been tested in a major recession, but there is much less overall competition in most markets now, so maybe that will keep working.

The oldest pilots left because you could retire at 50yrs and take 1/2 your lifetime annuity as a lumpsum payout prior to cancelling the pension plan. Many 50 something pilots had a very difficult conversation with their accountants right before the Delta BK where they were advised to take the lump sum and leave. Many did, a few didn't and they have had a rocket ship of seniority since (especially after they raised the retirement age not long after).

There are books written about how well AA was managed during the 70's-80's. Heck didn't AA mngmt invent revenue management, the B scale, Sabre, etc? Also, many AA mgmt have left multi-millionaires, so good mgmt is always subject to perspective.