Neither frontier nor JetBlue make any sense whatsoever... Whoever wrote that article needs to research one of the big reasons for southwest's long term success... Single fleet type... Plus southwest hates us... Gary Kelly would probably prefer to be homeless in the Yukon in January than have anything to do with us

 

JetBlue has lucrative NYC/Boston slots, very profitable Caribbean routes, a solid business traveler following, innovative in-house technology, and is the first to serve Cuba. They've also got incredibly good codeshare agreements lined up with Lufthansa and Emirates, expanding their reach to the entire globe. All those things are valuable regardless of the different fleet type.

Even though their first go at Frontier didn't succeed the fact that F9 operates Airbus made no difference. During that time the old Frontier was going to allow SWA to quickly dominate the DEN market and increase ticket yields dramatically by going from three major DEN airlines to two. The Frontier of today puts pressure on other airline fares and as it expands will be a major threat to future revenue earnings at carriers like SWA. Buying Frontier eliminates that threat and secures additional marketshare. The Airbus fleet could be phased out and the orders could be sold/leased to another carrier for a premium or even cancelled. That'd make Boeing pleased and would probably yield even better deals on future 737 orders. If SWA could find someone to lease all those AirTran 717s to I'm certain they'll be no shortage of airlines lining up for new Airbus.

I doubt SWA is actually looking at either carrier, but stranger things have happened. They bought Airtran for a lot of the same reasons. AirTran had far lower internal costs and were a major threat to SWA's RASM if they continued to expand (and they were well on their way). Not to mention the ATL flying and international routes. It's not about fleet types and products. Those variables don't take long at all to adjust. It's about eliminating competition and gaining marketshare/dominance for them.

In any event, this is all wild speculation driven from an article where just a few months ago the author claimed SWA was targeting entirely different carriers for another merger. Don't go seek a job at F9 with the idea that you'll be a SWA pilot.

 

Rumor started!

 

So now that we're clear on who's buying who, will I still hold Denver?

 

if the analysts and articles say JBU, F9, and Spirit... it's Alaska.

We'll all read about it one morning in the WSJ or USAtoday.

fwiw... the author couldn't even get the jetblue ticker correct. Maybe he should do a little more research.

 

Interviewed the other day at the FLL job fair. Any F9 pilots able to give a rough idea of upgrade time...First 3 years pay range based on picking up time vs working minimum. Also is the Orlando base jr?

 

Right now upgrade is 2 years, and with all the orders on the way I bet it'll stay that way, although with this industry it can always change. There are senior FO's (around 150 or so I believe) holding out on upgrading so thats another variable.

As far as pay goes, its a little tricky picking up open time on reserve if you don't live in base as you have to be put on a list to be called to be voluntarily junior assigned.

Yes Orlando is junior, with Chicago being next then Denver the most senior. I started this year in July, holding medium call for November and will have a line in December.

 

APC has the hourly rates calculated but at the job fair the presenter was speaking of how some guys are able to credit 130 hours plus a month. Is this realistic? If not what is...I live 2.5 hours from Orlando. Thanks for your time sir!!

 

Yes, in a vacation month or if you want to take yourself down to 8 days off a month and don't care what days those are.

In MCO, you could maybe pull off 90 and not completely kill yourself. The open time sucks right now in MCO due to the small size of the base and if you want to pick up, there are only low hour trips.

 

Yes, it's possible to have a really big month here and there, but I certainly wouldn't plan your family budget on 130 credit per month. I think a more realistic/sustainable target would be in the 85 to 90 hour range. Many people make a bunch of extra hours during vacation months. Managed correctly, a single week of vacation can net you an additional 25 to 50 hours credit. Of course you'd have to be willing to work on your vacation.

I'm not advocating that you do any of this. I'd much rather see our pay rates improve rather than encouraging someone to work a bunch of overtime to make up for substandard hourly rates. I can tell you from past experience maximum-allowed FAA block time sustained over many years takes its toll. Certainly NOT recommended for a long term plan.

If you live 2-1/2 hours from MCO, you'll effectively be a commuter. Our regular reserve callout time is 2 hours from initial call to the crew room. We have a long call reserve system that allows 10-12 hours for a callout, but you probably won't be able to hold that right off the bat for at least a few months. You'll want to make arrangements for a crashpad for at least a short time.