Can anyone from the inside shine some light on company culture, particularly up front. I understand this can be different from base to base. TIA

 

That’s an extremely broad question. What exactly are you asking about? Have you heard something that concerns you?

 

I’m in hope for broad answers. For example at my current carrier in base, I would describe our culture as very professional and safe but also very laid back. Super down to earth etc..

 

This will be interesting reading soon……

 

I factor everyone into 2 categories. Those that live in Peachtree City and those who don't. The ones that live in Peachtree City live, breathe, sleep, and eat the company. The only thing they care about is making as much money as possible. They will drop everything to fly a green slip every single day of the year no matter what is going on at home. Most of these guys end up divorced in the long run. The other group are the non-Peachtree City guys. They are usually more fun to fly with because they actually have hobbies and can have conversations outside of work and politics. Is this what you were looking for?

 

When I got hired in 2014 one of the things that I really liked was that there was the impression that ALPA and management work together to get things done which I liked very much. However ever since contract 2015 Was turned down That has soured. I do believe our union was more antagonistic than it needed to be, but then again many people perceive the company as having trying to have pulled a fast one on us.

If you have a problem personally my experience has been nothing short of spectacular with our Chief Pilot Office and I’ve heard the same from many other people.

culture will vary based base and obviously the tongue-in-cheek view is that Atlanta is full of uptight Van-Admirals but that is not the truth. Every airline I have worked at, the impression of pilots being the most uptight in the airlines home base has always existed. There are mostly good guys and there are some bad guys. In New York at least I believe your observation of professional, safe, and enjoyable people to fly with is accurate.

Delta really strives to be a “big family”. whether you want to drink the Delta juice it’s up to you but I feel that over the last few years of contracts being turned down and especially managements heavy-handed attempt to get the union to take cuts during the pandemic which has now backfired horribly in terms of staffing and schedules has not left the mood phenomenal but on that same note it’s way better than most places I’ve worked.

Basically there’s very few people I flown with here that I’ve not enjoyed flying with and I am very happy to be here while being a realist and under standing I’m a cog in the machine.

I will also add That my perception is that the culture is much different in a positive way for the non-pilot employees. When Covid happened many of the ground people that I met and talked to had taken voluntary time off to “save the company” and We’re definitely more “all hands on deck” than the pilot group was whether that was naivety on their part or just love for the company.

I’ll leave with the fact that we have many bases and many fleets And domestic versus international. On domestic you’re most likely never layover with the flight attendants and you will most likely never fly with the same captain more than twice. My perception from talking to guys that fly international is that there is a bit more camaraderie since you tend to fly with not only multiple people at a time but the categories are smaller so you get to know people a little better.

overall it’s a good culture, I’m happy every day I work here and enjoy who I work with. I would say from a pilot perspective it seems like the mood at FedEx and United is very good lately, I would say we are in that conversation as well.

 

I can't speak to the widebodies, but I've been on a narrowbody in ATL since I was hired. Wild guess but I've probably flown with at least 200 different captains, including many that live in Peachtree City. So far I haven't flown with a single person who I wouldn't mind flying multiple trips with again. There is a spectrum as far as "laid-backness", but everyone is coloring in the same coloring book. Everyone has been friendly and easy to get along with. Not always super buddy-buddy, but that's perfectly fine by me. Even the "worst" ones are polite and professional. Never once have I felt pressured, demeaned, ignored, or otherwise put in any uncomfortable position. I recently flew with a guy who had less than 2 years to retirement and he was out doing the walkaround in sub-freezing temperatures when it was my leg to fly. And again that is all in ATL, which rightly or wrongly is considered to be the most up-tight base we have. Back in my RJ days I flew with probably 6 or so different captains who were way worse than anything I've experienced here.

Having said all that, we do have our oddballs, kooks, and nuts in the group, just like every other airline has their 1-2%. I've heard lots of stories, and anecdotally it seems like a lot of them are on the 7ER for whatever reason. Maybe that's just because most guys sat right seat there before making the jump to the left seat on another fleet.

 

13,000 pilots, demographics are in a state of rapid and continual flux, we have pilot bases in conservative and liberal cities, perhaps half of pilots commute from liberal and conservative communities, we have narrow body flying and wide body flying, our ALPA representation toggles regularly in different directions, CPO staff and instructor cadre are in constant states of change, we’re hiring and retiring hundreds of pilots a year and saw a couple thousand leave early while all of America is experiencing some level of life chaos and disruption and re-evaluation of their priorities, we have a healthy split of former NWA and former DL pilots in all bases, we have large bases and small bases and a large number of very different fleets from four manufacturers and we have former unionized flight attendants and never-unionized flight attendants, we have civilian pilots and former military pilots and current military pilots and we have people who write short sentences and some people who write long ones.

Bottom line at the bottom…I don’t think you’re going to find we have a well-defined or unified culture at Delta. You will find it all - the good, the bad and the ugly - and your fellow pilots will also find the good, the bad and the ugly while likely defining those things very differently from you.

I’m happy here. I suspect I’d be no more or leas happy at any other legacy carrier.

 

Lots of good responses so far.

I’ve been NYC and ATL based and can say there isn’t a noticeable difference in overall “culture” between the two. NYC captains I flew with tended to be younger, but that’s about where the overall differences ended.

Overall, I can count one hand the number of guys I’ve said “I really don’t want to fly with him again”. Every employee group has its share of bad apples. I don’t think we have a larger share by any stretch.

We have a solid group of pilots.

 

The perfect answer right here.