So you think they will hire 400 pilots in the next 16 months, with 'normal' ops? Zero chance of that.

 

UAL tried that post merger. Ended up losing a ton of market share.

 

Or they're just gonna disregard our contract even harder and find ways to make us more productive. Then they have growth without needing more pilots.

 

The marching orders for the newly hired SVP was to maximize efficiency of the pilot group. That's why they ran it "a little hot" (they still are). That's the optimizer coming aboard (the circa 2018 one). That's the reason behind the commuter threats, the sick call badgering. The bread crumbs are there, just follow them.

I'm kind of in hockey's camp now, I was one who thought they would hire more this year and on in to next. We will hire next year, but the 1500+ numbers I don't see happening. Especially with the continued delays in MAX and NEO. They want a leaner operation out of us. I don't think we'll hire 1500+ next year, more around ~800 ish. Flight Ops has looked at the data over the last 2 years and they are going to continue to stretch the fleets to the breaking point manning wise. It's all about profit. Nothing more. They'll take the hits in IROPs because those are few and far between. Day to day is what they are looking at. They'll push for any opportunity to maximize our use. They are going to take it and run with it.

This pilot group has always had a decent sized contingent of pilots that carried the water for management. We had dudes flying premium when folks were furloughed. We have dudes that didn't even know about UNA, despite all of DALPA's comms about it (3/4 of them don't read that stuff anyway), they will exercise their contractual rights and all else be danged. They will wear hats in a "hat's off for a new contract" campaign. They'll make gate PA's push wheel chairs, toss bags, and go grab bags of ice. They'll make side deals with CS. They'll fatigue shame you, they'll besmirch commuters and brag about how little sick time they've used. We've got a fairly decent contingent of these types working here and it doesn't serve us well when the rest of us are trying to be good unionists. I don't see that changing anytime soon.

 

While people keep picking up GS left and right, there won’t be much hiring. Pilots are their own enemy…flew with an FO that only had 6-7 days off last month. He was proud of his paycheck, he was burned, but couldn’t wait to do it all over again.

 

Good for them. Good for those who work as little as possible. Good to be at a place with options.

 

doesn’t sound like that fo was their own worst enemy at all. sounds like someone willingly making choices to work hard for a reward they deem worth the effort.

 

The moment the post COVID boom slowed down and GS's significantly tapered, this place was up on arms about their inability to pick up extra. I vividly remember one senior mouth breather complaining that all this hiring and adequate staffing was costing him money. At least when staffing is leaner, nobody is forcing you to pick up anything extra. The only guys getting the raw end of the deal are guys that bid reserve to not fly much.

 

lol just look at the person who posted it.

 

not so good if all your days are black. Good luck trying to manipulate your schedule.

Listen, all this 23 m7, violating coverage, and all the other issues and management shenanigans that get beat to death here all stem from the root cause I mention above. We are chronically undermanned in the vast majority of the bases, seats and fleets that do the heavy lifting here. I'm all for exercising ones contractual privileges. However, when it becomes a detriment to the rest of the group, that's where I draw the line. That's not helping your brothers/sisters out. That's carrying managements water.