I see there is a job posting to fill the manager of recruiting/hiring up which could be another cause of the lack of new hires in class. As an applicant with all the boxes checked (just not the TPIC / 1000's of 121 - but currently flying 121 regional) , app reviewed and internals , resume to a base CP by those internals - no calls. Speculating the lack of new hires in class is because of the current recruiting musical chairs that is happening across the industry. I'll be in PSP to meet and greet with all that are hiring. Just some info from the outside. With the big 3 hiring FO's without TPIC it's definitely an interesting landscape.

 

10 won’t even cover attrition. Guess the fastest growing airline is about to go 2 months without running an upgrade class.

 

3Q earnings call: "we have enough pilots to last us through the summer of 2022". That wasn't true even of Dec 2021 let alone summer 2022 but it wasn't until a few short weeks ago they admitted there's an issue and it needs fixing. The majority of the hiring resources (HR and line pilot) were effectively shut down from Oct until now. A few steps are finally being taken (eg hiring replacement HR personnel) but there's yet much work to be done.

 

Exactly. All this discussion about how for the next 6 to 9 months, the staffing will be ok is preposterous as no one can predict the amount of attrition we will experience. Even if we were to get 50 a class, we WILL have attrition. Could be 10 a month, could be 25.

The accession/retention problem of F9 is a SYSTEMIC one. It’s because of a combo of conditions to include lower pay, lack of wide body (for some), more expensive and to some degree non-comparable ancillary benefits, style/timeframe of flying and a route structure of 40% redeye flying, upgrade times the same or even higher than other airlines, toxic practices by management and many others. The reason we can’t recruit and lose people is because the airline sucks - and we all know it. It’s not the recruiting department, it’s not the CPO and it’s not having to wait in hold for scheduling or a gate, it’s ALL that and then some.

Thinking this airline will survive (yes survive) in present form for the next 3-5 years is a serious concern. The company does know how to be extremely frugal, but we are already shrinking or close to it. No amount of recruiting effort or other small pay adjustments are going to make a difference. The reasons listed above PLUS the pay gap are so great, CAs are leaving here.

The writing is on the wall - this place shrinks into oblivion or the airline gets “bettter.” Raising pay isn’t better by itself, is just a start. And it needs to be HIGHER than legacy - if you were paid the same as Delta and you had a choice, would you choose F9?

 

I’m even starting to hear of at least a couple people who have left for new corporate aviation jobs. Sounds like lots of flight departments are finally facing the music and are ponying up the dough to get good pilots.

 

Based on what was said in the townhall, it seems like a large part of the problem is the lack of resources. I'm sure that's not the only reason, but having a handful of chief pilots and a couple senior line pilots doing pretty much the whole job of hiring without much HR support isn't a recipe for being able to get enough people into a class and on top of that, account for the inevitable no-shows in today's environment.

 

^^^^This. Exactly. One more thing I’ll add, the potential for involuntary downgrades is a very real thing - if they don’t do something. Being reactive is no way to run a company. Being proactive is real leadership. Name one thing that’s going in the right direction.

 

Is this correct? If you are only getting 10 in a class and then only having one class a month it seems like this coming summer is going to be a meltdown to end all meltdowns. Figure the last class that will get out to the line for any flying in June is a March class at the latest. If any attrition occurs between now and then I don't see this summer going well.

Is there only one a month because of the departure of the hiring folks or is that an anomoly. I am not sure what the training department can handle as a maximum number, but it would seem that you would want to be at that number already to have any hope of staffing the airline.

 

It will be fine. We will assign flying to all the reserves, and since you won't be allowed to call in sick, we won't need any reserves in the traditional sense.

 

Heck, I heard we are closing another one!!!