World Airways
 

Any update on hiring? Kind of quiet lately. I know they picked up some Gemini guys. Just wondering what's in store for the rest of us.
Thanks

I talked to a buddy of mine over there. He said they are runnin the Gemini guys through the short course. They're still hiring on the outside as far as I know. I believe they're getting a couple more 74's too..

Annouced fleet expansion is 3 MD-11 (ex GAC), 1 B747F and 1 DC-10. Hring for the MD's is complete with the GAC pilots coming on board. I was told that they were still interviewing, but only for a few slots.

Heard anything about a second DC-10 towards the end of the year?:D

Thanks a lot. i have a friend in the pool and he was curious.

ATA guys in the pool will get asked first for any new DC10 spot (FO or SO) that opens up. Right now only approval from bean counters is 40 crews. Once they realize this isn't enough (which shouldn't take long, we are super short) they will give approval for more crews thus more new hire classes.

I think this is the plane I mentioned. All other DC-10's are going to be for parts.

There's quite a number of folks in the pool, that's why the additional numbers will be small.

agreed, from what was told in recurrent, many still in the pool.

OK, thanks. How soon before the recently arrived DC-10 is put in service?

Latest bid just came out. We still need to hire 10 DC10 FO's and 17 MD11 FO's.

As OKBK said I wouldn't be at all surprised if they increase the number of crews on the DC10 for the latest addition to the fleet, everyone on the fleet is working a lot at the moment.

How many days a month are you gone? How many hours do you fly?

For the 10 guys it's really your choice. If you want to be at home, you will be out 12 - 15 days a month. If you want to earn, you can be out 18 - 24 days a month.

This isn't a hard fast rule as sometimes the guys who just want to earn a steady paycheck get shafted and are stuck out as much as 18 days; and the same for the guys who want OT, they may only work a 12 day month sometimes.


Guarantee is 12 days off a month, 6 hard where they can't touch you; 6 soft where you can be "non volunteered" - this is a rarity. One can always volunteer your off days. Pay is an extra 3.6 hours on top of whatever you have earned.

Thanks, very informative.

Since you're understaffed, do you have many reserves, or does most everyone have a regular line?

Here's the way it works. We have home reserve with a short call out and a 76 hour guarentee and open time lines with a long, 16 hour call out and a 65 hour guarentee. At least 50% of the pilot force is on a open time line since alot of flying isn't finalized by the time bid lines are constructed. OTL is the junior assignment. The only question is what you consider reserve?

Thanks for all the good information. Is there a big difference between the DC10 and MD11 flying in terms of routes these days? I realize they can fly anywhere on demand at any time. That said, do the DC10s tend to do more Europe and Middle East while the MD11s do those places plus Asia, South America, etc.?

The 10 does almost exclusively military flying. So you can bet on Europe and SE Asia. But we also pick up a lot of ADHOC work from the military that takes us out into the Pacific. I spent most of my summer flying HNL - Guam - Darwin - Japan and ANC. The MD flies everywhere. And I mean EVERYWHERE. The MD flies contracts for Air France and Lufthansa (Just to name a few) as well as Military flights.

The biggest difference is that the MD-11 crews are doing more and more cargo, while the DC-10 is picking up more of the passenger flying. Both do world wide operations.

Are the DC-10 pilots happy with the staffing level so they can fly extra, or do they wish the company would hire more pilots for the Ten?

The Captains aren't very happy with staffing levels. But I think the FO's and SO's enjoy the ability to earn extra.

None of that matters though, manning levels are so low that we turn away flights when we have acft available; just no crews to fly them.

So does anyone have an actual number of people swimming?

Is there any speculation around World how the election could affect the AMC/DOD flying you do, or would World stay pretty busy regardless?

Just heard from a friend there. They are extremely busy he has been out now for over 45 days. His choice. They are still hiring the Gemini and ATA pilots. Pilots with lots of time, jet and glass, personal rec. a big plus.

Guys like me with 9600 TT (mostly TProp) will have to wait.

I've been on the line since June, I bid for days off and haven't volunteered any days off. I did sell them a day off instead of going directly home (without required rest)after a trip to the middle East. Last month I had 80 hours for pay and worked mostly domestic legs.
Quite a few of the new FE's/FO's are selling some days off though like Dutch indicated.
I'd like to see some more cargo flying, but that tends to go senior..

the short answer is no. Both candidates are saying the same thing. No changes based on what comes out of their mouths.
WG

Really? I tend to disagree with you. Without getting into politics too much and based on what the both candidates have said in the past - if one of them wins there will be a "surge" of military ‘return flights’ - at least for a while. If the other side wins there won’t be any “military charter surge” but the back & forth flights will be going on for some time.

What am I missing?

If we pull out of Iraq and Afghanistan, sure, there will be a reduction of AMC flying. However, there seems to be plenty of AMC flying for us that is not associated with our presence in Iraq and Afghanistan.

With Iraq, it can go either way. However, with either candidate, it seems like we'll be in Afghanistan for quite some time.

The one thing that both have in common is that their lips are moving. That should be your first clue. There is nothing that makes me think I should believe what either has to say.
WG

There's a couple of things that you have to remember with the military side:

When we pull out (both canidates say they will, the difference is when), will the troops go back to the states or will they just deploy to another country?

Even if they do go back home, will we resume other smaller deployments?

Since a portion of the flying is being flown by the scheduled carriers, will their flying drop off first?

Historically the answer is yes to all three. World will have hard times when the war is over. The other thing to think about is how much business have we not done because of the war. We haven't flown the Hadj since 2001. I feel a swarma and a cold fruit juice in my future.

Just my humble opinion but I think there's enough stuff going on with Russia and Iran to keep the coals of war burning for sometime. The world isn't getting any less dangerous.

That's the one thing I love about this country. There is always somebody in the world that needs to be beat up. After all, we are the international police.

c'mon, dude. you are called Packer Backer. don't sound like such a winy, wuss. or at least change your avatar if you do.

I think World will be busy for the foreseeable future. I have flown alot of diverse flights with many different customers, military is def the bulk. BRING BACK THE PACIFIC EXPRESS!!!

Is the Pacific Express the military rotator that flew either SanFran Kadena Osan or Seattle Kadena Osan?

I was stationed at Osan and flew on the 2nd to last rotator flight home on World. Because of my job and position at the wing, I've was privy to a lot of discussion on the World rotator. I can tell you the 1 and 3-star were not particulary happy with the performance and pricing of the rotator. Interestingly enough, on one occasion, I had to book a flight on DAL/Korean Air and the ticket overall was $640 cheaper (no exaggeration).

Although I felt the rotator made the operation very easy (everyone in-processes at the same place, same day), going civilian has saved the military a lot of coin.

-Fatty

On many of our trips, troops carry their unloaded firearms in the cabin. I don't think that is doable on DAL/KAL.

Yes. It was actually called the Patriot Express.

I'm confused. This was a free trip to military families. Equivalent of a military hop. I flew it when I was in the Air Force to OSAN and paid only some tax making the grand total airfare $35 for me, the wife and two kids. Don't know what your talking about but its not the Patriot Express. Some people complained about our service to the higher ups, we always gave hot meals, hot towels, it was better than any commercial economy - but some didn't see it that way.

There's a lot of talk right now about bring back this run. Apparently the new AMC Commander wants this back. Stay tuned.

Everyone is right on this one. :D

The military paid the operator, World Airways in this case, a flat fee to operate the flights. An amount that was far lower than what we get for ad hoc flying. It was put out to bid and the lowest bidder won. Of course, it's not that simple, because of the AMC teaming arrangements. One team gets 60% and the other gets 40%.

The military "billed" the commands for the flying. Some commands paid more than others and the SA's paid almost nothing at all.

It was cheaper to fly commercially if your command was "paying" alot for the ticket. Also, somebody got the frequent flyer miles, if they rode a commercial flight. That was the biggest gripe.

Here's the bugger. A figure that's run around World is that the total cost to the military to fly the personel was running about four times the total cost of operating the Patriot Express. The issue was far more about how the military was billing itself, than the total cost to the tax payer.

Will it come back? If I were a betting man, I'd say yes. After the war is over. One of the big selling points was that it kept carriers like World, Omni, North American and Ryan alive and ready to serve until the next crisis. The military has come to depend on us to be there. Yes, they can activate CRAF and force the big boys to deploy more planes, but we are there ready to go. We have always been the first to fly folks in and we'll be the last to fly them out.

Not on the Patriot Express. That was a regular flt that went to stateside pax terminals, no weapons.
Yeah it was cheaper to fly NWA/Korean, but it was very convenient for a family. How easy was it to board a flt at the base? Now a family of 4 has to load up in a little van or bus to the regional airport, transfer, fly up to Korea or Japan and then push the strollers through those airports. Its been crazy from what I've heard.
Word is its coming back! Lets hope! Rumor is a new F/A class this winter, perhaps another hint.

Any word on DC-10 F/O, F/E new hire classes? You guys are short on the -10?

The last bid shows 9 DC10 FO positions open, the FE/So side shows fully manned (with some in training). That assumes that we don't increase the number of crews - currently 40 for what will be 5 pax and 2 freight DC10's. I think that the assumption is that the beancounters will need to approve an increase in the total number of DC10 crews.

We also have 18 MD11 FO slots not filled after the last bid. There are no positions unfilled on the 747 with the junior Fo being just over a year on property.