Next class it has 60.

 

Talking with people who interviewed recently: one day this week only a little more than half got the CJO. Last week had a day with 50%. Could just be two rough days, could be an indication hiring is slowing down, could be an indication quality of applicants is decreasing. Helps with smaller class sizes getting into the end of the year, though.

 

I'm actually glad to hear this. If you look at the newhire classes in the weekly ALPA updates, the average quals of the newhires have been steadily dropping. It's definitely being seen in IQ. I'd hate to think we are lowering our standards in this "pilot shortage" and taking on problem children who will struggle in training, or have bad attitudes on the line. We are hiring pilots with qualifications that couldn't get you hired at a regional 20 years ago.

 

8/9 interview date, 11/7 class date

 

I've heard that the majority of negative probationary pilot reviews are about bad attitudes. I hope we can weed those people out while they're on probation.

 

Very, very few pilots get terminated on probation here. It would have to be flagrant, repeated violations or the usual lie/cheat/steal that could get anyone terminated. Once off IOE, probies basically have the same protections as a non probationary pilot. Only difference is ALPA can't file a disciplinary grievance.

The place to weed them out is the interview or indoc/initial training when they can be fired for any reason.

The 9E flows actually seem to have most of the attitude problems. There's a whole lot of them that stayed for the flow because they couldn't get hired anywhere else, for clear reasons. They come to training and act like they're doing us a favor by being here.

 

Why bother bringing folks in if the quality of the applicant is low in the first place? Wouldn't it be better for both the applicant and Delta to bring in applicants they actually intend to hire instead of bringing in 20 people hoping some make it through? I understand there are classes to fill but it seems like a waste of time and resources on both sides.

 

Tell me you've never done interviews without telling me.

Every candidate presents their best self on paper. Everyone you call in meets the min qualifications and is somewhere near the middle on the bell curve. Then you sit down with them and find omissions, outright lies, poor attitudes, lack of preparation, etc.

This is why you have an interview in the first place. To verify they are everything they told you they are. Everyone Delta calls in they expect to hire. This isn't southwest where they will call people in over and over with no intention of hiring them just to look elite. But as we hit the bottom of the barrel it's expected (and hopeful) to see more no's.

 

It's more than just the 9E flows, its the lack of overall aviation chops of many of our new hires. CFI ----> regional ----> mainline 121 in under 4 years is just not working well. Our training programs were designed for the ex-mil pilot with ~ 8 years experience or a civilian with about the same level if not a bit more time. Looking at about 10 years there. The quality of candidates and those we are giving CJOs is of some concern. It's been discussed at the last 2 LCA meetings and at the ASF last week in Chicago. It's got people's attention. As you said Nick, we're hiring folks now that wouldn't have gotten a first look at a regional 10-12 years ago.

 

The airline and training department are going to have to learn to deal with it and figure it out. Maybe the initial training program needs to be made longer or have requal at shorter intervals. Maybe IOE needs to go to 100 hours or more.

Regionals figured out how to effectively train a 1500 hour CFI to fly a regional jet.

Military is never going to produce pilots in the numbers it has before. We are probably one generation away from seeing military guys with no actual flight time just drones.

The candidates that Delta and every other major are getting are what is available in the pool of applicants.


Its not just this industry- its accross the board. Anything that is not "influencer" with 100k on day one to work remote unsupervised with no expectations of performance it seems no one is interested in.

Military cannot recruit near enough even after relaxing standards

New cops in CA might not even have to be a US Citizen.

Fire Department (my former career)- It took me 6 years of testing and becoming a paramedic to get hired. Now every department is practically begging high school grads to apply and they will send them to training to get EMT and fire academy certifications.

Have you tried to find a mechanic lately? I got rid of my diesel due to lack of mechanics and the ones that were around can command $150-200 an hour.

Most schools have significantly dropped standards compared to when millenials attended, even further from when generation X, and even further from the boomers.

Only thing that can be done is controlling what they can. Training department cannot control the applicant pool. The only choice is to evolve the training departments to work with what they are getting.