Believe it or not, this is true that there isn’t a few hundred available. This next bid that comes around will have maybe, and that’s a big maybe, 100 guys with 1000sic. The problem is the crazy highering numbers happened after they announced the 22,100 FO sign on bonus in late 2016, that’s when we started seeing consistent class sizes over 30, before that fos were just trickling In here and there. Yes, sometimes upwards of 20 or so but no where near the numbers we’ve been having lately, so we are extremely fat on FOs with low time. Almost 1/3 the pilot group right now has less than 300hours.

 

thats un friggin believable.

1/3rd of the FO group has less than 300 hours. are the lines low time?

When i flew 121 before if you got hired in January, you flew enough that you risked turning into a pumpkin by Christmas the same year!

 

Well...as you have said...they have a lot of sub 1,000 hour 121 people on property. I think the real question is (which is what you are asking) is how many of them are going to hit their 1,000 by the next vacancy. I think the true answer is that no one knows. The RESULTS of the next vacancy will be a good indicator of what they have to work with as far as upgrading captains. They can post as many slots as they want, although obviously they have more data than anyone else here does, so it will likely be in line with the number of qualified FO's available for upgrade. At the end of the day management is creating a problem that everyone else forecasted and we are here to watch it play out.

 

Upgrading current FOs on property as they become qualified likely won’t meet the demand for Captains that will be a side-effect of growing the fleet by 40+ aircraft. Management was recently very clear that a core strategic initiative of he company is achieving a 200+ fleet count (and it appears they are trying to do so fairly rapidly). Growth of an airline is generally positive for pilots, but clearly the rate matters.

 

what a mess

 

There has to be something else in the works going forward. There is a 2:1 line:reserve split going on right now with CAs. There has to be a new base announcement or something coming down the line very soon for us to have this much excess....the last time I saw it get this far on the CA side was right before the 175 came online.

 

thats an interesting angle, boost the captain numbers so you can keep a new base staffed.

but where would they base... they have the the Northeast covered, Chicago and DFW are your mid-continents, Miami is well... in florida lol

where do you go from there? LAX? DEN? PHX?

and if your theory is correct, why such a push to force people to LGA? if its because LGA is short staffed, a new base would be suicide

 

I’m strongly contemplating jumping ship to Endeavor, for this exact reason. Haha! It’s a tough decision to make. Just thinking long term here.

One thing I love about this HVA fiasco recruiting tool is that Envoy is showing it’s true colors on how it views its current Pilots/Employees on property. Unlike other Regionals. I suspect attrition will take a hit soon from various directions. If I’m thinking about it, I know others are as well. The math added up.

Once FO’s get close to 1,000 hrs. They can jump ship to Endeavor (1st yr at Envoy, means u owe approx $10K out of your approx $20K bonus If you left before your 2-yr mark. Well guess who is still paying its pilots bonuses??? Endeavors! That $10K bonus can pay off the remainder of the 2yr contract at Envoy. Facts.

Guess who is not requiring you to sign up for 2yrs for a Bonus or to pay back the $10k bonus they give you? Endeavor. Because they have confidence in their product and “VALUE” their Pilots on property.

Great timing to be a regional pilot overall. Endeavor is Upgrading folks who have the time as well. Much much better CA rate, Soft Pay, and reserve rules. Facts. Tough decisions I’m looking into.

Should I stay or should I go? Haha

 

When PSA decides to stop hiring FOs in favor of DECs for a few months a couple years back it was disastrous. When they decided to resume hiring FOs they spooked everyone interested off and things slowed/stagnated for almost a year. It just sends the wrong message. Sounds like a mess over there. Hopefully your management is making sound decisions.

 

Step 1: Change pay/reserve
Step 2: Advertise hard to pilots at other airlines that currently have 1000hrs. Let them know life will be the same even with a longer reserve expected.
Step 3: Problem solved.

The pilots that don’t even work for envoy ultimately will dictate what envoy does.... envoy can’t grow without them. A bonus isn’t enough. These future pilot indirectly affect us. Without them, metered flow, stagnation, an more forced displacements. Management will soon learn, then make one more last try to screw the current pilot group again(mostly pay), but then they will have to give in. That will happen in Nov ‘18. After the summer passes and we can’t staff the flying, becuse we can’t grow. envoy will soon be in the same boat that peidmomt is currently in.