I'd be surprised to see if any left. I could see if some had ties to a FDX hub. I've got friends at both and prospects appear to be better at FDX, but things could improve at UPS following the contract. Once the UPS guys get to 2-3 pay, it's tough to start over again. Throwing a line in the water is a lot different than actually leaving.

A previous poster mentioned a national seniority list. I put that up there with home basing and your very own airplane and MX crew, a la WWII movie fighter pilot style. It won't happen, but it is nice to dream.

There are so many unfilled A300 fo slots, they are going to be hiring a ton of people into that seat (along with the others you listed, of course). It would be great to have newhires with A300 experience. I would hope anyone from UPS is put on the top of the interview pile, should they apply.

How many new FO spots on the Bus are you seeing compared to reserve lines in an average bidpack?

Given what you're seeing with vacancies and the projected hiring, how long might a newhire on the Bus spend on reserve?

The latest Indoc class had the Caboose go to the A300.

Our last bid showed 56 Airbus FO spots, only 7 were filled. There were 97 757 slots, only 3 filled. 89 MD11 spots, only 19 filled. That doesn't include secondaries (meaning all the FO's from those airplanes that moved up or over, and there were many FO's that moved). All of those spots should be filled by newhires.

There were 54 Airbus FO reserve lines in July, however, those were not all filled by the most junior people. Guys who live in Memphis might prefer those. When I looked at who got awarded them, only 18 were obvious newhires, from looking at seniority numbers.

No way to predict how long a newhire would spend on reserve, however I just flew with someone whose been checked out for about 8 months, and he has held VTO (secondary lines with little/no reserve) for months. As long as the hiring keeps up like this, seems like it shouldn't be long. However, many people think a reserve line is better than a crappy line, or bottom VTO.

Interesting that guys are taking the 767 ahead of the bus. I realize that many probably don't even know what an A300 is, but they probably also are unaware that the delays in 76 training can mean an extended time on training pay.

From a newhire perspective, aside from the extended time in training pay, what would the advantage be of the 767 over the A300, or vice versa?

I could see why guys are going to it. The A300 is a shrinking fleet, predicted to eventually disappear entirely. Though they seem to be shrinking it a lot slower than planned. The 767 is growing like crazy, so you can see the potential for greater seniority.

But I'm staying with the bus until they toss me outta there!

Advantage of the bus--it's a nice airplane. Bathrooms and jumpseats are outside of the cockpit (we do have two in the cockpit, but rarely used). I've heard the 767 is a great airplane to fly, from the cockpit seats, forward....behind you are the jumpseaters and the bathroom, which from the fact I'm saying it twice, you can tell it's a negative.

In talking to FedEx pilots, there definitely seems to be a widespread opinion that the A300 is a bit different than the rest of the fleet...my inference was that it had to do with the old-ish avionics, but there have also been references to strange pairings in bidpacks, and more than once I've heard that "they're a bit of an oddball community."

In a post here at APC a while ago, IIRC, Albie called the Bus (I apologize if I'm misquoting you -- I hope I'm catching the gist of what you actually said) a "stiff-legged *****". To be fair, it was in the middle of him musing about how incredible of a lady the MD-11 is, but for some reason that phrase stuck in the back of my mind bout the A300.

Not trying to stir the pot, but I just thought MX727's observation was interesting in the context of all those other mumblings, as they may be.

A300=Plowhorse
MD11=Thoroughbred


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"Oddball community" at FedEx means, the "cool people" to the rest of the world...