No question that the new contract is loads better. I don't consider it concessionary at all, that was the ABX line back when ATI did their contract. Seriously, go back and look at the ABX name calling when ATI did their deal.

My feeling was ABX ended up matching ATI on cost (the so called "concessionary" contract). ABX traded for stuff they liked which is fine, the home basing is a (strong) personal preference type thing, either you really like it or you don't care (though with all the increased flying I think its a bit less important, you can get many places now own / ATSG metal).

Not just a feeling. It's a fact. We were told over and over that our contract must fit into the cost structure of ATI's contract. That is why ABX people gave you such a hard time about the deal you took. We know who we work for, and we knew that we were not likely to get more than ATI did. We tried for a couple of years, but it went absolutely nowhere.

Anyone looking at interviewing with ATI or recently interviewed in March during the off-site interviews…

Long story short, look elsewhere.

Support departments (scheduling, travel, and payroll) treat pilots like a nuisance. They will exploit holes and grey areas of the CBA frequently. Prepare to push back often. This will wear you down quickly.
Company has begun using new line construction. Utilization is up.
Average block time per line has increased.
Average days off has decreased - Important note: you do NOT have min days off. Company only has to produce lines with an AVERAGE number of days off. We bid two bid units at a time. Bid Unit = 28 days. Bid Cycles = 56 days. Again, company only have to provide an AVERAGE number of days across bid cycles. So you may only see 10 days off in one bid unit.
Home reserve - you will be used (remember, utilization is up). You will also be jerked around on reserve. You will see frequent 14 hour duty periods.
You will see lines with as many as 18 days. This occurs when the company utilizes Carry Over during bid construction. These carry over days will reduce days off in the following bid cycle. But again, you do not have Min Days off so it is your responsibility to bid in the following bid and still have a reasonable number of days off.
Soft pay, retirement, and rest rules are poor. (esp retirement. 2.5% 401k match after year 1. 3.5% direct contribution at year 3 (based on year 2 earnings). 100% vested after 5 years. Some regionals have better match/vesting.)
Current CBA negotiations (as of April 2022) have slowed and sentiment is poor around when and what will come in a TA. This is discouraging given the current hiring climate.


They will get you to look at the job through rose colored glasses in your interview. If you have the resume to go elsewhere, I would consider doing so unless you are 110% sure you want to work at ATI.

Truth. Guys if you have apps somewhere else, please just look somewhere else. This is not the place for you now. It may be good couple years ago, but not now.

Absolute garbage! Steering guys away because you are disgruntled. Shameful. ATI has its issues just as all airlines. There are reasons for all and your not being honest about the “whys”. Applicants are welcome to DM me and I’ll give you the truth. Don’t listen to these newbie guys who are unhappy with the cargo industry. ATI is fantastic and I’m a lifer working to make it better! Just give us time to negotiate this contact and we’ll be in a much better spot.

And in the process you ruined your reputation in the industry and seriously damaged your future business opportunities. Companies don’t like ABX because the Teamster mentality. Y’all need to become ALPA and shed the Teamster tarnish

Let’s be real here for a minute. If you got hired at ATI 3+ years ago things are great. Wherever you came from and whatever your aviation aspirations are you got in at the right time. You are either a captain with enough seniority to get whatever days off you need 90% of the time. Or a super senior FO that gets whatever trips you want. You have the time and experience to leave whenever you want. You came at a time of exceptional growth. You make ~$200k per year and will take a pay cut anywhere you go for a few years as a FO save UPS and FedEx. No crash pads no commuting etc.

Most people came to ATI for fast upgrade, no commuting, long blocks of time off, and being able to turn 2 weeks of vacation into 6-8 weeks off. Aside from no commuting all of those things are gone now and you spend more days traveling to and from work (all though it is a company paid ticket).

Schedules are becoming more efficient. Where most lines were once one leg and done with the occasional two leg day, now two legs is the regular with occasional three leg days and longer duty days with deadheads tacked on. Again with seniority you can avoid the worst of it but without seniority it can be pretty rough. Flip flopping days and nights wasn’t so bad when it was one leg in the middle of the night. But now it’s two legs with a 4 hour sit in the middle. And yeah that’s what seniority gets you but where for the last three years we were adding 10-13 planes a year I only see one more on the books this year for sure.
Always subject to change but the days of rapid growth seem to be gone for a while. We have hired over 70 FOs with zero Captain upgrades.

I’m not trying to bash ATI this is just how it is these days. Everyone has different goals in their careers. I’d rather be an FO at ATI than flying pax anywhere. But if you don’t mind pax going to an LLC or mainline will net you more money, faster upgrades, front side of the clock schedules, better work rules, better retirement, and opportunity to make big money for picking up trips than coming to or staying at ATI. Want to work on days off for extra cash at ATI, expect to be paid straight pay. No %200 or %300. And because very few lines are over or even close to MMG you only get the daily rate which is sad. Imagine flying 20 hours in three days and only getting paid 12 hours because you didn’t credit enough during your days on.

If you don’t want to work to hard and don’t mind back side of the clock ATI is great. Growth will probably resume when airplanes start making it through conversion again. Amazon is talking about adding A330’s or 777’s to their network. Maybe ATI will fly then maybe not. We are working on a new contract to hopefully fix a lot of the complaints, add more work rules, get a respectable retirement, and raises of course. Everyone here is hopeful all of these things will happen sooner rather than later. If you’ve been here for a while it’s a bit easier to be patient and enjoy the ride than a new hire or junior captain getting abused with no end in sight while all your peers are going mainline or UPS/FedEx. In 10 years we could be a 5000+ pilot group with amazon badges. In 10 years we could also still be one of the many ACMI airlines all fighting for pieces of the same pie.


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DHL seems to like us just fine.

Applied last night, Unrestricted ATP 1537TT 749ME 0Turbine(Been waiting 13 weeks for IOE at SkyWest). I got an e-mail this morning inviting me to an in person interview, which surprised me because I didn't think I had a shot with my hours.

Interview in a few weeks..
 

Hey guys! I have an interview in a few weeks. Is there anything I can do to prepare for this? Thank you.