I’m certainly not saying that having only 10 new hires is okay, but in Indigo’s eyes the sky isn’t falling yet. In the Q3 earnings report BB was asked point blank about future pilot staffing and what it meant for summer flying (or something to that effect). BB stated that we are currently staffed to meet our summer 2022 demand. Being public now, he has a lot less wiggle room to BS an answer when directly asked.

Also, if we’re going off the typical staffing target of 15 pilots per plane, we’re currently staffed to properly handle 113 airplanes. We’re not even there yet and I don’t believe we were slated to receive any aircraft Q2 of this year. We’re definitely going to have a problem in the future, but that’s tomorrow’s problem. Indigo is very good (unfortunately) at walking a very fine line with finances and staffing. They’ll throw fixes and money at the problem when they feel they’ve hit a wall and it begins to impact the operation. We will become short staffed on pilots and they will fix it with lots in the PAF and flying the reserves to the max. Only once it becomes apparent to them that is no longer enough will we see any appreciable change.

 

Totally agree with the above post.

We will know the company is concerned about staffing when they up 1st year pay. Until then, rest assured the company isn't concerned

 

SAN would be cool but I can’t see F9 ever having a crew base at an airport with what is essentially a redeye curfew.

 

And 2 or 3 will be gone before IOE .

But welcome to F9! “You’re home now” (name that instructor)

 

I may be wrong, but we are planning on receiving the following:

March - 1 x A320
April - 2 x A320's
June - 2 x A320's
July - 2 x A320's
August - 1 x A320
October - 4 x A321's
November - 3 x A321's
December - 2 x A321's

Received N388FR (A320) on January 20th. So that's a total of 18 for 2022. We should have 124 by the end of the year after 4 are returned. To staff those 124 we are looking at approximately 1860 pilots. As of January, we had 1708 pilots. We only need another 152 pilots by the end of the year, or 12-13 pilots a month. This does not account for attrition.

 

And it’s only going to get worse if those class #’s don’t change. Most came here for a 3-4 year upgrade. There’s no way that’s happening with those kind of class sizes. Most will leave sooner rather than later to take advantage of this current hiring boom and get on somewhere that has at least some truth or proof of projected growth/attrition at the sr. level (mainly due to retirements).

NOTE: These views are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of management, the pilot group, my wife nor my 1 or 2 friends.

 

Or upgrades. If that’s all we hired with the attrition we currently have I would expect downgrades by the end of the year

 

that is why you know he is Management. The rest of us actually fly the line and see all the worts and *****. I do enjoy F9 though, even with the blemishes. Some days are frustrating, but if you commute enough you learn every place has its problems. Just seems like ours should have easy fixes and you are left wondering why they do not get fixed.

 

Who really cares if management or Indigo are concerned. The pilots are concerned. And the more the pilots are concerned, the more people will bail, the less people wlll show up, and this place will be shrinking faster than management can stop it. And in my opinion, raising first year pay isn’t going to even begin to solve the problem. Attrition is coming from everywhere….not just probationary pilots.

 

You’re probably right about the delivery schedule. I went back and looked at the Q3 earnings summary again and it was no deliveries in 4q 2021. Not sure where I got 2q 2022 from. Anyway, all that notwithstanding, 152 pilots short is not going to make the wheels come off this place yet. Percentage wise based on airline size at the time, we’ve operated with less than that in the past. Like I said above: PAF galore and reserves not getting paid to sit around very much. It’s not ideal, but we’ll hobble along.

I’m certainly not saying any of this is good or acceptable, but people need to get a grip on themselves and take a breath.