Just heard some info at the training center today. Looks like after next month the off the street hires will stop until maybe July. Third hand info only.

 

Heard the same from a buddy in the 1/13 class. But in the same breath he also said one of the Chief Pilots that came to talk their class said 500 plus newhires this year was all but guaranteed. I'm grateful to be in the pool but it's hard not to ride the roller coaster of emotions when such a huge life event keeps getting pushed farther away.

 

I sometimes wonder if guys use the term "hiring" when maybe they mean 500 "interviewed" or 500 "CJO".

 

Speaking of "roller coaster of emotions", I was contemplating something today which has not entered my mind for the past 8 or so years... Furlough. Is anyone aware of benefits or protections that exist should we ever be furloughed?

 

Hey Mike,

Are you still updating your spreadsheet? I would be curious to know how many OTS have been given conditional offers. I think last I looked it only went to Jan 9th.

 

1: Furlough pay. Not much for junior pilots (I think a couple weeks pay but not sure).
2: Seniority and longevity while on furlough, and seniority while on bypass.
3: Generous bypass rights (10 years or possibly more in some future cases) with no "spit or get off the pot" system like some airlines have.
4: DALPA will *probably* continue the tradition of providing medical for furloughed pilots.
5: Limited pass/travel benefits.
6: They probably won't take your wings. Srsly, some carriers actually do that.
7: Flowback agreements (top down) with CPZ and I think Mesaba (not sure about that though), effectively giving every DL new hire a 400-500 pilot "cushion" and since every furloughed pilot likely wouldn't partake of that opportunity, a potential flowback job could possibly go close to the 1000 pilot point.
8: Pref interviews by other DCI carriers (bottom of the list first year regional FO pay jobs, but at least its an option).
9: Free double breasted "Get Off My Lawn!" jacket so you can yell at those pesky kids and their rock and roll music in style.
10: Various miscellanious penalties to the company, most of which are too tedious to explain, but as an example the company has to pull 6 seats out of their beloved 76 seaters, a provision of which is not subjected to force majeur clauses, etc. plus other things like that.
11: Very low risk of furlough unless something truly massive happens. In the 4 years since the merger, there's been a never-ending recession which by many measures is one of the worse in history, a $145/bbl oil crisis, permanent $100/bbl range oil, perpetual wars, SARS, Swine Flus, Volcanoes, Tsumanis and several periods of nominal yet significant overstaffing where the surplusses were carried without any serious threat of a furlough, etc. And all that was when the only retirements were from a few targeted programs. This and next year don't have massive mandatory retirements, but beyond that is shaping up to be pretty significant. If they are going to furlough this decade, they'd better do it now. Like right now. But they can't, because we're understaffed and we're hiring.

Might not want to go eyeballs deep in debt for that "Captain's House" or second boat, and maybe junior isn't getting 6 figures to party hardy and regurgitate a reading list for art history material that's available for free at any library or on the internet, but this is as good a time as any to get on.

 

Thank you for that gloopy.

Like2fly2, The sheet is here:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/8884761/class.png

But you are correct, I have not received numbers from interview classes since Jan 9. However it was reported that they are continuing to interview 3 days per week.

 

That's awesome Mike! Thanks for putting the work into that

 

Thanks Mike. I too appreciate all the work you are putting into this. Helps us keep a pulse on what is going on.

 

It's my pleasure. Oddly, it and many home projects are keeping my mind off the delay.