80ktsClamp

Incoming!!!!

Avroman

Nope, at the moment it looks like early 2008 (turning every rock looking for a newhire).... what happened by the end of 2008??? Oh that's right, total stagnation. What happened next? Eventual furloughs and downgrades followed by mass exodus from the bottom half of the list in the face of bankruptcy.

Am I saying that's what's coming in 2016? No, but will it happen in this industry again? You dang well better count on it. The airlines are fighting harder than anything to repeal or at least greatly reduce the 1500 hour rule, and unfortunately it sounds like they are going to succeed. They've already letter of interpretation'd their way out of most of the improvements that FAR 117 was supposed to provide (oh but we still get to be scheduled for that extra hour of flying every day)
Sorry if I am feeling like I'm being hustled by used Kirby salesmen from both sides right now...

jules11

Its not 2008 anymore either...

All of those ultra old guys/gals at Delta, United and American have to die sometime if they're not retiring (who in the heck want's to be working past 65 anyway?) There's no way "total stagnation" will rein again for any lengthy time soon.

jules11

If you look back even further, there were guys who had to to pay for their training after getting hired by a regional.

We've gone from having to pay for your own training after getting hired > not having to pay for your training (not getting paid for training) > getting paid for your training > getting paid for your training as well as a completion bonus.

Sure you can look back at all the negatives and try to conservatively plan on more negatives to come, but you've got to admit, in recent years (the last 2-4 years in the quick changing regional world) there have been more positives than negatives.

Avroman

I agree, things have slowly been moving in an overall positive direction lately. And I hope it continues. My point is to prepare for the next down turn.... It's coming. There are constant cycles in this type of economy. Yes things seem great now, at some point things stop, if not reverse some. Prepare and negotiate to protect against those reversal times, not just the good ones. Once again, there are some nice things for lineholders, meanwhile reserves are once again fed the line of "you won't be on reserve long"... sorry I (and several others have) PROVE B.S. there. Will that reserve time shrink? Hopefully, but what happens in the next down cycle? Perhaps a few of those "short reserve time" guys find themselves back on reserve for who knows how long... Well, now it might be nice to get paid some credit for an unused reserve day (since your sitting 800 miles from home in a dump crashpad in NY anyway) It might be nice to be able to pick up that 3 day in open time except day 3 is day 1 of your next reserve stretch, or maybe that 3 day is days 2-4 and commutable home but nope can't pref trips here, so enjoy 2 days of ready reserve followed by a late turn that is too late to commute home from. Heck, don't want to pay for reserve days, then bring back long call so if you have no flying, then you can at least stay home instead of wasting an "unpaid look back day off" in a NY (or DTW or MSP) dump.

Chupacabras

Yes, totally agree with the above. A year ago, I would have told everyone to go elsewhere, but today, this place is a good place to work. Good equipment, good maintenance, good training, and management treats you pretty well now. Add to that top pay for first year FOs at $57000- thats a pretty good deal.

Im happy for the new guys coming on finally earning the pay they deserve and the pay we all should have gotten when we started. I do wish they would have taken care of the current pilot group a little better that just a 3k raise-but I will take it. As a 4ish year FO I have 17-18 days off next month and this year I will have made $67K. If the hiring happens, perhaps an upgrade in 12-18 months???? Who knows.

vilcas

image.jpeg

This is an appropriate response.

vilcas

Compensation is a function of many things but current first officers aren't making $39. They are making $39 for at least 900 hours and $20,000 bonus. That's $55k without flying extra or per diem. The whole reason this happened was first officers leaving for other opportunities. In the future if compensation is too low this will happen again. So things are covered on that front. This current package is a way for the airline to grow. At the end of the day there may be a time where things again stagnate and the bonus expires and again $39 will be what some first officer have to live on. Once again they can seek life elsewhere and the company can choose how to adress this. One reason the company might not want to raise FO pay scale and make it longer is this would encourage first officers to sit there. All the 7-9 year first officers will be offered upgrade in the next year and then we will quickly get back to first officers with less than 2 year seniority.

jethikoki

I'm with you, stop looking in the past for negatives. Start looking forward and get ALPA to apply its merger policy equally when a mainline buys a regional or another mainline and drop its "similar gage equipment" arguments.

BATOL

I'm not sure about the appropriateness of posting company communications on a public forum verbatim, so ordinarily I do not do this. However this is all good stuff that may help with recruitment and nothing in here is confidential, so this time I think it's ok. Note: I added the bolding in response to the OP.

Email with the subject line "Memo from John" which came out last friday in conjunction with the TA being finalized.

"Late Friday night, Endeavor senior leadership and the ALPA Negotiating Committee reached a Tentative Agreement (TA) on a plan that will allow Endeavor to grow our flying capabilities in 2016 and beyond, while stabilizing the support system for our existing pilots. While this TA includes some attractive financial incentives to appeal to high quality pilot candidates, it also addresses items that allow us to improve the overall quality of life for our existing pilot group.

In order to grow at the pace we are aiming for in 2016, we had to get aggressive in our strategy with regards to pilot recruitment and retention, as well as improving the efficiency with which we train pilots. We have also agreed to extend and increase our annual retention payments for all Endeavor pilots, including an increased first year pay rate and training bonus for new hires, as well as build in some protections that will make your experience here more rewarding. In return, ALPA will allow Endeavor more control of the OE scheduling process and count on earlier report times for pilots.

A big part of this agreement also revolves around our ability to unpark CRJ-200s to increase our lines of flying for Delta. We have plans to build the CRJ-200 fleet up to 53 aircraft by August, which will complement our existing 81 CRJ-900 aircraft; our fleet plan for 2016 will be to operate 134 aircraft. This fleet plan will foster rapid career progression for our existing pilots, while allowing us to offer movement to the nearly 600 new pilots we plan to hire next year.

This agreement is an important part of our growth strategy for 2016. I’d like to thank ALPA Leadership for their professionalism and respectful candor while working with the Company to reach this TA. Both sides worked together with the goal of stabilizing the support system for our pilots, while securing the future growth of our airline.
2016 and beyond present an incredible opportunity for us here at Endeavor. We’re growing, we’re stable, and we have the support of Delta to back these strategic initiatives. Together, we can continue to build Endeavor into the industry’s premier regional airline.
Best regards,"