Kalitta Air now accepting FO applications
 

Kalitta Air recalled all furloughed FOs and are now accepting applications online via the Kalitta Air website. From the main home page there is a link to take you to the application page.

Min requirements: 5000TT, waived to 1500TT for military

Is this hiring due to them anticipating getting the flying from ABX for the DHL 767s?

Partially due to attrition with quite a few of us leaving for the majors and some hopefully to UPS, and partially due to 3 more 400s coming. Kalitta is submitting a bid for the 767 flying yes. DHL will award the bid I think by August some time. I want to see that flying awarded at no less than ABX pay rates. They fought hard for their pay and it would be wrong to undercut them.

I just received an email from PW at Kalitta Air. They will be attending our job fair in DFW on July 25th. We should have detailed information about Kalitta on our website later today.

:confused: I probably don't understand the situation.
Wouldn't the whole point of DHL taking bids on their flying be to get a competitive (possibly lower) offer? BTW, is this a frequent issue? How often do these poor guys have to sweat a re-bid of their flying?

It seems like there is a huge disconnect in what you are saying. Undercutting the ABX rates is the goal of everyone involved except the pilots. Bidders want the business, so they're going to make their offer look good. DHL wants their stuff flown for as little as possible. Of course you (and every other pilot flying for companies bidding) don't want the rates undercut. That would mean whoever gets the contract might have to take a pay cut or some other concessions.

If Kalitta did get the contract and undercut the ABX rates, do you guys have any say? That seems a bit above the pilot's decision options. You'll fly whatever business your company is able to bring in.

Seems like just another version of the standard airline whipsaw act to me.

You should seriously consider it. I'm sure you'd be running the place in no time.

If you need recommendations, I'm pretty sure every fedex pilot on APC would be more than happy to give you one. Good Luck!

From another forum:

Be forewarned potential newbies...anemic/no growth in the past 3-years (in fact we've shrunk and the potential to shrink further is real with the accelerating death of the classic), 10+ years of no upgrade potential as the hiring boom a few years back flooded the seniority list with young/middle-aged pilots while our attrition to the majors is predominately from the lower half of the seniority list and engineer upgrades keep flowing to the top of the FO-list, my first year here was horrible as you have no union protection during the 1-yr probation sentence (be prepared to be a whipping post for crew scheduling in garden spots like Crap-istan and with things escalating in the middle-east who knows where next), 35-days away from home on back-to-back assignments, hours of being crammed in economy between two paki's on Afghan Air on 5+ hour international commercial flights due to scheduling ineptitude and "cost savings", talks of a legitimate contract that isn't full of loopholes (like our current one) have been on-going ever since arriving on property with little indication that progress is being made (sounds like HQ went to the Del Smith School of Management), and you better be confident in your ability to handle a 747-400 sim as we've had a significant number of training failures in the past year (the majors would love to discuss the events of that with you at an interview). Connie's paychecks are deposited on time though. My .02-cents...

Adlerdriver,

Most, if not all of the 767 operators bidding this DHL flying are Teamsters Local 1224. ABX and Atlas already have established 767 pay rates. Kalitta and Southern do not. Southern cannot contractually get them without negotiating a 767 payscale, and Kalitta can get them provided they arrive at current 747/747-400 pay rates, unless they approach our negotiations team to discuss payrates. Kalitta is currently in Mediation, so this could potentially be rolled into economics negotiations for the next contract.

Bargaining higher pay rates still allows companies to make money when they submit their bids to DHL. I doubt DHL cares what ABX/Atlas/Kalitta/Southern's profit margin is and how much they extract out of their pilots, as much as they care about the bid for the cost range they expect.

If History has anything to do with it, Connie has always paid the same no matter if you were flying a DC-9,727, DC-8,L-1011,B747.

That speech is legendary , and was refreshing when I came to K4 after being furloughed from a company that abounded in corporate doublespeak .