Also, no matter what time of the day you call in well, that full day will be counted as sick. So to help yourself, don't call in well at 7am, more like 11:58pm.

Monday reminder: The Buckets need to be changed.

http://thechive.files.wordpress.com/...if?w=500&h=281

That is all.

They want to count it as sick since they cannot use you for at least 12 hrs. I have called in well at 6 am and gotten placed on LC at that time. It took some talking, but I was well and able to fly, and was not going to take another sick day. I call in well at that point.

I do agree though, most of the time, I call in well later in the day.

No kidding. I've got 160 raw while others are at 10. Think we over did it trying to observe seniority.

That makes sense.

In my scenario I called in well around 4p so they counted the remainder of the day sick but hit me with a 6am report for the next day. For me, if I'm going to get charged for sick till midnight I might as well be sick till midnight.

LOVE LOVE LOVE. Blood pressure spike.....

TEN

I agree. With this career in the toilet and the seniority list stagnant, I think they over did it as well. I am almost in favor of a straight Capt/FO pay structure. The old days of "someday you will be senior" BS just doesn't fly in this new low pay stagnant job. I have been here for 11 years, I'm projected to retire in the top 20, but screwing the junior guys because they are junior is wrong.

Scope or Nope.

China Lures U.S. Pilots Tired of 14-Year Wait for Captain

China Lures U.S. Pilots Tired of 14-Year Wait for Captain


China Lures U.S. Pilots Tired of 14-Year Wait for Captain’s Seat
By Jasmine Wang and Simone Baribeau - Feb 27, 2012 11:01 AM ET
Enlarge image
To help lure overseas crew members, Spring Air pays foreign pilots 30 percent more than domestic staff. Photo: China Photos/Getty Images
Kent John Krizman has spent 13 years as a co-pilot at American Airlines. For a chance to move across the cockpit, he’s ready to take a job in China.
“I should be flying as a captain,” said the 52-year-old San Francisco resident, who has 20,000 hours’ experience in jet planes. Promotion won’t happen for at least five more years at American, while in China it could occur straightaway, he said. He and his wife “are all set to go,” he said.
Krizman was one of about 550 pilots who attended a China job fair in Miami last week, as first officers find fewer chances for promotion in the U.S. because of slower airline growth and captains retiring later. There are jobs available in China, where a surging economy and a fleet expected to grow 11 percent a year through 2015, according to government forecasts, is creating a need for experienced crewmembers.
“Everyone is facing a pilot shortage,” said Shen Wei, head of pilot recruitment at Shanghai-based budget carrier Spring Airlines (TPRINZ). “Foreign pilots are the quickest option.”
To help lure overseas crew members, Spring Air pays foreign pilots 30 percent more than domestic staff, Shen said, without elaboration.
Air China Ltd. (753), the nation’s largest international carrier, was offering $198,000 a year net plus bonuses for Airbus SAS A330 pilots, according to an advertisement on the website of Wasinc International, the recruitment company that helped run the job fair. During the two-day Miami event, which featured about a dozen Chinese airlines, about 70 pilots got provisional job offers, said Scott Snow, a spokesman.
Doubled Pay
Roger Grant, an American Airlines co-pilot, said in Miami that he may be able to about double his salary by moving to China and becoming a captain. He also said a move may offer better long-term prospects.
“I’ve been worried about the direction that the pilot career has been taking,” said the 45-year-old, who lives in Boynton Beach, Florida, with his wife and 7-year-old daughter. Workers across the industry are “getting punished” for mistakes made by major airlines, he said.
It’s easier for first officers to become captains in China than the U.S. because of demand rather than lower requirements, said Li Yanhua, an associate professor at Tianjin-based Civil Aviation University of China. Air-traffic controllers in China are already required to speak English, in line with global standards.
China Demand
Nationwide, the number of pilots in China needs to rise to 40,000 from 24,000 in the five years ending 2015, according to a statement posted on the website of the Civil Aviation Administration of China. There are about 1,700 foreign pilots working in the country, according to Spring Air’s Shen. Calls to the CAAC went unanswered.
China Southern Airlines Co. (1055), the nation’s biggest carrier, is looking to hire 725 pilots this year, including 100 from overseas, it said by e-mail. It employs 4,400 pilots. Air China intends to recruit 600 pilots this year, including as many foreigners as possible, it said. The Beijing-based airline has 46 foreign pilots, or less than 2 percent of its roster.
In the U.S., first officers are finding it more difficult to get promotions as an increase in the mandatory retirement age for captains to 65 from 60 creates a logjam at the top of chain, said Kit Darby, who runs a pilot-hiring and compensation consulting firm in Peachtree City, Georgia.
Pilots who have been promoted at major U.S. carriers are unlikely to leave as even junior captains earn $12,700 per month on average, plus benefits such as pensions that can boost the package by 40 percent, he said. Moving to China may appeal to the 4 percent of the country’s 90,000 pilots that are on furloughs, he said.
“To the furloughed or unemployed pilot an overseas job looks pretty good,” he said.
Regional Carriers
Pilots at U.S. regional carriers, which fly smaller planes on short-haul routes, have also been caught by the retirement slowdown as they lose opportunities to move to better-paid positions flying larger models at a major airline.
Tony Giraldo, 51, for instance, said he has spent 15 years flying “numerous hours on the same equipment with no chance for an upgrade” at American Eagle, which ferries passengers from smaller cities to American Airlines’ airport hubs. He was considering a move to China as it offers “bigger aircraft and new possibilities,” he said.
Some American Airlines pilots recently were promoted to captain, 14 years after being hired, the carrier said. The wait for advancement was five years in the growth period of the 1980s and as long as two decades a few years ago, said Sam Mayer, spokesman for the Allied Pilots Association union.
AMR Bankruptcy
The November bankruptcy filing by AMR Corp., the Fort Worth, Texas-based parent of American Airlines and American Eagle, also spurred Giraldo to consider opportunities elsewhere, he said. Krizman, the American co-pilot, similarly said that concerns about Chapter 11 had “refocused my efforts” to look overseas.
American, which has a hub in Miami, wants to cut 400 pilot jobs as part of bankruptcy restructuring, as well as terminating pensions and outsourcing more flying to other carriers.
The carrier’s pilots “will remain highly compensated” even after the proposed changes, said Bruce Hicks, a company spokesman. American crew members “have long been among the best compensated in the industry,” he said.
China is stepping up pilot training to help meet demand. The Civil Aviation Flight University of China, the country’s biggest training provider, plans to accept 2,400 cadets this year, 33 percent more than last year, it said in e-mailed reply to questions.
Using domestic pilots is simpler for Chinese airlines as there are some restrictions on foreigners flying domestic services, largely because the military controls much of the airspace, said Spring Air’s Shen.
“The boom in foreign pilots coming to China may only last a few years,” he said. “When we have more choice in the future, I will prefer our own pilots.”

SWA wants to dump the 717s
 

Southwest Takes a Breather


With Fuel Costs Up, AirTran Purchase to Digest, Airline Holds Off on Expansion

BY SUSAN CAREY AND DOUG CAMERON WSJ.com

With fuel prices on the march again, Southwest Airlines Co. is taking a pause after a 41-year expansion that has taken it to the brink of the global industry's top 10 by traffic.

A year ago, the airline and its rivals faced the worrisome prospect of jet fuel rising to $3.30 a gallon, but the industry successfully managed to pass on most of the increases through higher fares.

"We prepared for $3.30, and now we're going to have to be prepared for $3.50," said Chief Executive Gary Kelly in an interview in Chicago, where he was attending an employee event at what is now the airline's busiest market.

Southwest is keeping its aircraft fleet flat at around 700 planes until it reaches its investment-return target of 15%, though it will boost capacity by introducing larger planes and adding extra seats on existing aircraft.


While demand remains robust, Mr. Kelly concedes that Southwest will have to look at "schedule adjustments" if it fails to secure cost savings and push through higher fares to counter fuel costs.

The fuel challenge comes as Mr. Kelly continues to assimilate discounter AirTran Airways and face off against larger legacy airlines that restructured and then merged. The AirTran deal boosted Southwest's scale by around 20% in one swoop, and also gave it access for the first time to international markets.

Southwest has been limited to domestic routes because of an outdated reservations system that Mr. Kelly says it is still "years away" from replacing, as well as union contracts that kept it focused on the Lower 48 states.

Meanwhile, new rivals such as JetBlue Airways Corp. and Spirit Airlines Inc. have grown quickly into markets from the U.S. to Mexico and the Caribbean.

But Mr. Kelly seems unhurried about shifting his focus from domestic routes, where he sees potential to add "hundreds of planes"—though not as many as 500—before it runs out of growth opportunities in the Lower 48. Services to Hawaii, Alaska, Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean are all seen as on the horizon, but Mr. Kelly views the core domestic market as far from saturated.

The big prize from AirTran was access to Atlanta, the busiest airport in the U.S., and it is also expanding its presence in the New York area, and eyeing further expansion in Washington, D.C.

AirTran, which Southwest acquired last May, is expected to generate $400 million to $500 million in revenue synergies, with much of that sum coming from the smaller carrier's extensive network out of Atlanta. Mr. Kelly said the deal is adding 22 cities to the 72 that Southwest already serves and is moving the strictly domestic airline into some overseas destinations in Mexico and the Caribbean.

It is one of several strategic cards in hand that Mr. Kelly hopes will boost revenue by nearly $500 million over the next few years.

In April, the first of 100 larger, more fuel-efficient Boeing Co. 737-800s will arrive, and Southwest is also the launch customer for the revamped Max version of the airplane, part of a $19 billion order announced last December.

The Max jets are due to start arriving in 2017, and though Boeing and rival Airbus have seen recent new aircraft programs running several years late, Mr. Kelly believes the U.S. company may even come in ahead of time after learning from past mistakes.

Beyond that, Mr. Kelly said, Southwest will have opportunities to grow from Dallas Love Field in 2014 upon the expiration of a federal law that limited the carrier to serving only Texas and eight nearby states nonstop with flights from its home airport.

Mr. Kelly said the company also has many opportunities to improve its labor productivity, although many of those potential changes would need to take place within the confines of union labor negotiations.

One piece of AirTran he wants to jettison is that airline's 88 smaller Boeing 717 planes.

"We tried to look for a purpose for the 717s that was different than for the 737s," Mr. Kelly said. "We couldn't find one."

But AirTran's leases on those planes don't begin expiring until 2017 and run to 2024. So Southwest has reached agreement with Boeing—from whom it leases the aircraft—to try to place the planes elsewhere.

"If we can't find a home for them, we'll fly them and pay for them, or not fly them and pay for them," he said.


Write to Susan Carey at [email protected] and Doug Cameron at [email protected]