Still 5 737's. No more airframes have been sourced. 2 777's will go down for heavy checks back to back. Company offering COLA on 777 and terrible lines of 50hrs and under. 777 is way over staffed for next few months. Good thing they keep hiring more people...

 

Received an email today for up coming interviews in January.
You are on your own to get there and hotels as well.
No thanks.

 

They've been cold emailing me for months inviting me to interview. And that was just with a 737 type.

 

This isn't new either.

This is actually the CP being a stand up guy. He wants all applicants to understand both the difficulty of commuting to CVG, and the company culture you're joining.

(aka You are on your own, suckers!)

 

Is Dave Soaper still there?

 

How bad is the 737 flying in terms of schedule? I know it's all red-eyes, but what type of schedule can a senior 737 FO get? As in days OFF per month and days off consecutive. Is it possible to get 16-17 OFF flying 45-50 hours per month? 777 would be preferred, but I'd imagine that's harder to get, is the seat lock still 3 years? How many years seniority is the top 25% 737 CVG FO?

If I decide to apply, it would be a driving commute to CVG for me.

 

If you live in CVG it's a pretty nice gig. You won't want to stay FO though as the pay is pretty rough. You will get your 12/13 GDOs but will also get a few extra days off living in CVG for 1/7. Most likely end up with about 15 days off. With the west coast flying now, you are done for the day when you get back to CVG. You will probably sleep in your own bed close to 20 nights if you get all west coast trips. The hub turns ROC BDL STL MCI are pretty rough but usually you only do a few. Don't let all the bad press about this place sway your decision. I'm glad I didn't. Living in CVG it's a really nice gig. Hopefully in negotiations the pay and retirement improves. That's about the only negative I see right now.

 

Thanks for that, I'm just testing the waters and seeing what's out there. Safe travels.

 

The great thing about SAI for a new hire is seniority doesn't matter for bidding, in the sense that all the schedules are basically the same. You get the contractually minimum days off, and they own you for the rest of the month. The company has never felt an obligation to honor the schedule you bid, if their interests were better served otherwise. And sometimes, in the not so distant past, schedulers would muck up schedules just to have the appearance of being busy for their bosses. Not so much on the DHL contract, and not as much in years past, but there is nothing in the contract to prevent them form doing so should they decide it would be fun.

If you live in CVG and fly the 737, obviously things will suck far less than for those who would have to commute.

On the other hand, your schedule will never, ever get any better.
That's one of the magic things about Southern, things never change that much. There is churn, pilots and managers come and go, new directions are proposed, new policies implemented or ignored, a steady stream of new types are added and removed from the fleet, but Southern Air today looks and acts a lot like Southern Air from 5, 10 or 15 years ago. The current contract is essentially unmodified from the first one signed by the Southern Air Crew Group, before the Teamsters were even on property. With the Worldwide Holding company cooking the books I'm sure when the current contract negotiations get underway there won't be a dime for Southern's pilot group, but McHugh and Soaper will continue to get massive bonuses, just like they did when they drove the company through bankruptcy.

 

Soaper. Enough said.