ATI - first couple of years?
 

Hey all - I haven't seen an ATI thread other than for the interview. Intrigued by home-basing & the idea of doing more domestic flying. Can anyone share what the bids have been like for recent hires? Typical number of days out/off? Traveling to sit reserve at CVG &c.?

Home basing is nice. The bids have been all over the place for the last few months. The “typical” footprint has been 16 on/12 off. Travel to work and home is included in those 16 days on. The most recent bid had plenty of lines with 14+ off. Previous bids were in more of a week on/week off footprint, and there was still a tiny bit of that in this most recent bid. What the next bid will look like is anyone’s guess.

Reserve can be a lot of things here. You could sit at home on reserve and not fly at all, you could sit in a hotel on reserve and not fly at all, you could end up flying all 16 days of your reserve availability, or any combination of the above. Regardless, you’re home based so the company is buying airline tickets and hotel rooms for any reserve assignment away from home. It typically doesn’t take long at all for new hires to hold a flying line.

Thanks, brother! And am I right that the flying leans more towards domestic than the other outfits?

Yes, the flying is almost entirely domestic at the moment. Of course it’s ACMI, so that could change tomorrow. You never know. We still have a little bit of international flying on the schedule now, but if you don’t want to do it you’ll probably never have to. You might get an oddball international trip if you’re on reserve, but it’s not that likely.

Is everybody still home based with positive space to/from home and a hotel once leaving home?

Si, still home based.

I’ll play devil’s advocate for anyone out there looking at ATI.

In the last 12 months morale has decreased significantly. Scheduling, Payroll and travel department has become more adversarial than supportive.
As of February 2022, year over year pilot utilization has increased and average block time per line has increased. Average days off has decreased.

Current CBA is in negotiations and average sentiment is poor around the time and prospects of eventual TA.

Retirement, soft pay, CBA language strength, and rest rules have fallen behind industry average. (Especially retirement if this is something important to you. Literally anywhere else, including some regionals, have better 401k matching and vesting schedules).


My advice:
Wanting to fly cargo and OK with back side of clock flying? Go to Atlas or Kalitta. UPS/Fedex if your resume can get you there.
Wanting to fly pax and normal daytime flying? Go to Frontier/Spirit, any Major, or go for a direct entry captain at a reputable regional depending on your resume.
Bottom line: 12 months ago I was proud to tell people about ATI and always advised applying. As of March 2022 I advise people to look elsewhere.

Happy to provide more details if interested, send a PM.

Homebase to ?
 

Homebased sounds great for me up in North Dakota. Do the trips start in KCVG or anywhere they send you?
Any guess on how many loggable hours/month an FO can expect when off reserve?

Trips can start / end at any one of our destinations. So if you want to bid trips that start or end on the east / west coast thats possible. I've been able to hold a flying line every bid since new hire training. Averaging about 50 hours per month.

Thanks for the good info. Sounds like what I'm looking for.