Meh….you kinda have to see that in a particular context.
Yes, more then half of the departures are on property less then a year. Fact.
Now these cats don’t leave for a regional, they leave mostly for the Majors.
So that’s a good thing, for them.
Shows that even a short stint at Atlas makes you more marketable.
In addition if you hire a lot of former military (any branch really), these pilots just need a civilian type and 5-700 hrs 121.
Coming from a SE fighter you’ll need some 121 Multi engine multi crew time to perk up your resume.
In addition, if you hire furloughed pilots or from an airline that tanked in ‘20, you’ll loose most of those to the Majors as that was their goal all along too. They were just looking for a seat when the music stopped.
Domestic situation recovered quicker then expected and now the floodgates are open.
But there’s a little bit more nuance to it then just “all the newbies quit”.

Hiring
 

What’s the latest with hiring at Southern and Atlas, struggling to fill classes or still fine with the current crop of regional pilots?

I heard they are looking at Aussie pilots on the E3 visa again, however It’s just what I heard from somebody, don’t know how true it is. I presume there is a lot of unhappiness though within the group regarding the new contract so people will move on.

Does anybody expect mass resignations or any kind of difficulty for the Atlas group to maintain the current numbers they have?

I feel that they will not have trouble getting people in (especially from the regionals). Keeping them to stay on for the long term is a different story. Perhaps, they are ok with that.

If they can get people in the door with minimum legal qualifications and able to pass training…management is fine with it.

A couple years ago on a company crew call, the previous CEO(Flynn) was asked a question about hiring, which he mentioned something about lowering hiring minimums to attract “quality candidates”. On a follow up question, a pilot asked “Do you think it’s safe to operate these aircraft in the environment that we do with a bunch of low time pilots”, or something to that effect. The response from Flynn was “It doesn’t matter if a pilot has 1500 hours or 15,000 hours…an ATP is an ATP and fully qualified to do this job.”

That tells you safety is not a concern for them…staffing the airline is all they care about and they will go as low as legally allowed to. Thankfully the FAA requires an ATP at least or they would be hiring pilots straight out of flight school.

Agreed... especially with the way the pay scales are set up. There's a big bump between years 2 to 3 and 3 to 4.

Not sure why regional pilots get such a bad rap. They are solid pilots and many of us came from that world.
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​​​​​​Where O where should Atlas be getting its pilots, according to you? FedEx, Delta, United etc hire pilots right out of the regionals by the way...

I don't believe that this was implied in any way, at least not by me. For a regional guy, Atlas might potentially be a great career opportunity, adventure, change, or a stepping stone, simple as that.

I'm a relatively senior 747 Capt with zero regional experience but you'll never hear me giving a regional pilot a bad rap.

I love that we have hired so many because they know how a union is supposed to work, they know how a training dept is supposed to work, they know their way around an FMS, they know how LAX, SFO, SEA, ORD, DFW, JFK, ATL and MIA work in all weather conditions.

There's a very ignorant prejudice against them simply because they haven't been to China or flown a widebody.

Big deal. That takes about 3-6 months on the line to build new habits.

Very well put ZZ, a lot of these guys are top drawer and work just as hard if not harder than most and bring excellent experience using the FMS, automation and busy airport operations due to being up and down 4 times a day for 4 days in a row.

Like you I have seen some very experienced operators who have a lot more flying skill than a ‘Heavy’ pilot that hardly flies that often.

Agree 100%. I'd also add that a lot of regional pilots are also sharp on the "old-school" skills that people bring up. They're used to seeing things when they don't perform as advertised and bring a healthy level of critical skepticism. I'm not saying one pilot background is better than another. There are plenty of good pilots that come out of all kinds of career tracks. Any idea that these guys are generally lesser aviators speaks more to our failure to train in the rear and lead in the field than to any shortfall in these guys. To be fair I haven't heard these ideas espoused in a few years, but that could be due to the fleet that I'm on.