skypilot35

I’ve heard a number closer to 40 including a couple of street captains. We’ll see. Given the hiring that’s revving up at the Big 3, FedEx, UPS and Southwest, OAI is gonna lose a few guys, especially those 40 & under. IMO.

Cujo665

yes, I heard the 20 were poolies from Covid and that more have since interviewed and are awaiting class dates. 40 is not surprising. Heavy international experience at a well known carrier with rigorous training. It’s a known product to recruit from.

with the recent email asking guys to volunteer for overtime, it looks like I called it right. With the increased flying, and even more leaving, we may be hiring even sooner than I predicted.

I've flown more this month than in the previous three months combined. Used all 16 days, plus they tagged me on the over ride day.
I think things are looking up....
it’s a good company.

wjcandee

Please, Cujo, don't let FACTS get in the way of this troll's snark.

wjcandee

The correct way to measure growth is to take the additional quantity as the numerator, and put it over the existing quantity. So an increase from 10 to 12 is an increase of 2 which is 20% of the existing Fleet, which is a 20% increase. You're putting the two over the 12, but that's incorrect because the fleet didn't start with 12, so it's not the thing to divide by.

wjcandee

Cujo, you were handling the naysayer very well, so I didn't get involved in poking at him. But the fact is that the company busted its butt to find profitable flying while keeping people employed. Military is at the whim of the military, and the vacation charters were questionable for some time. However, with like every American family wanting to travel right now, and the ability to go to a wide variety of international destinations severely constrained, the Hawaii Charters and such should come screaming back now. That was certainly what everybody was hoping for, and it seems to be the case. As to the other big planned Charter route, I don't know what it was, so I don't know whether it was domestic or International to a country that isn't well vaccinated at the moment. Other kinds of flying, like incentive Charters, should also come back significantly in the late summer and fall. Trade shows and such are also picking up, so that aspect of business travel, as many of us expected, is going to come back simply because business is best conducted in person. People can argue about that, but the moment a competitor seals a big deal because its sales people spent time with the client in person, everybody else will fall in line and start doing it again.

looking at things now, without being jingoistic, we are very lucky to live in this country. It's absolutely shocking how many bureaucrat-run developed countries are still sitting and waiting for a strong vaccine supply, not to mention the developing ones. Just amazing that Japan is the mess that it is, but the structure and operation of their Healthcare System, and the manner in which their government operates, explains a lot. Aggressive entrepreneurship by the US govt, in the face of a lot of naysayers, turned out to be just brilliant. And the idea of financing three different types of vaccines, with two manufacturers taking a shot at each one, is the reason that we got one kind that turned out to work very well. Unlikely that any other country would have supported that.

CardboardCutout

IMS, the other big charter deal was going to be for Condor, flying various German cities to various US vacationy type spots.

wjcandee

Oh, well. Gonna be a while before that would be needed, I suspect.

Cujo665

Thank you, and agreed. Thanks for the second opinion too. I was correct about the 14 day recall from RLA summer leave being used too, getting guys back sooner. I’m still betting we’ll be hiring by Fall. With the rumors of new flying, and how fast the normal flying is returning, plus the number of guys going to legacies, purple & brown, they should start the hiring process sooner rather than later or we will end up big time short staffed with lots of trip extensions.

They could really slow/stop the attrition by fixing our retirement. Our rates were competitive but are starting to fall behind, but the retirement difference is literally a 9-16% difference in compensation. Over 10-20 years that’s a lot of money.

Cujo665

I also agree that our management did an amazing job keeping the ship running straight and true without furloughs. It’s a very good company.... and anybody that knows me, knows I don’t praise airline managements often.

Freightpilot299

Been waiting patiently for that hiring window to own back up, good to hear management has been busting to keep things running well.