Can you guys keep a secret?

There's a lot of you who may be thinking of staying and upgrading here or jumping ship. This may help you decide.

We had a VX jumpseater who said he had some good news for us. He informed us that we are getting more flying with none other than Alaska. Not that we are taking flying from Horizon but AS ordered 30 to replace the Q400s and options for 30 more.

The jumpseater was hating on SKW because he said they were taking their flying. Have you guys seen the odd Alaska E175 out of SFO. It's not the usual place to find that plane there outside of places like SJC and SAN. If you look up new future routes for the E175, you'll see pairings like SFO-AUS and SFO-ABQ. Alaska can't exactly compete with DL on the same scale, but they plan on being a threat to them in the west coast.

The more I think about it the more it makes sense. Why are we planning on hiring 100 FO's by the end of the year? Upgrades are going again, there's an FA class in training, plus hiring 10 SLIP instructors. We already have a base in SEA and it can be potentially be the size of LAX.

3, 2, 1...GO

 

It's called attrition...

 

I don't think so. They're hiring more FAs because they drop like flies after finding out the job sucks. Plus a good chunck of the senior MSP mommas won't be commuting. They're hiring 10 more SLIPs because about that many SLIPs have left or have class dates at other airlines plus they want to spread out the events. 100 FOs because of attrition. I don't think we are gearing up for growth.

 

Agreed, if any of you have seen the latest AE Delta put out with unfilled pilot positions (1,150), it's easy to see why attrition will increase exponentially...and that's just Delta...

 

I'll believe it when I see a press release. So you're telling me this guy is unhappy that Alaska outsources to SkyWest but giving up planes and seniority to Compass is ok? If he actually had a brain he'd be mad that the E175 was not being flown by AS pilots and that there's no real scope clause. The E190 could be flown by the regionals for AS under current language, he should be figuring out how to convince his union to keep jobs at Alaska.

That would be like a UA jumpseater hating on SkyWest or Mesa and then saying I'm glad planes that United pilots could be flying are going to Republic.

Personally I think the 175 should be on mainline property, but I didn't get to be part of that decision. The DC-9-10 is equivalent to a 175.
Food for thought, DC-9-10:
MTOW- 82,000LBS
Length- 104.4ft
Wingspan- 89.4ft
14,000lbs of thrust

 

I'm just throwing this out there to get thoughts on what this jumpseater said. He is more upset that VX was its own entity until AS bought them. They used to do SFO-AUS but now it's the parent company outsourcing it to SKW. AS now has the flexibility to use different airframes (737, A320, e175) to keep capacity up on certain routes.

One reason attrition is really high is because we have been taking nothing but punches. Guys in both seats here are jumping ship to Hawaiian, Spirit, and yes, even Allegiant. If we don't get any good news any time soon, CPZ is losing qualified and trained pilots at an unprecedented rate.


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Which should be the goal for any regional pilot. We have nearly 1000 pilots on the seniority list. I feel as if I can count, using only two hands, how many of those 1000 are planning to finish their career at CPZ. Thats phenomenal and many other regional pilot groups wish they could have that.

 

So your rumor is we are getting flying for Alaska to cover Virgin routes with passengers that bought a seat on a Virgin product? What does Virgin's scope clause say about that?

 

I believe it will always disclose who it's operated by. Either VX, AS, SKW, or horizon. If you think you're getting a tv in the seat in front of you, think again.


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