Man,I would love to be a part of building up Frontier. I think they are going to be a force to reckoned with!

 

You get your second interview yet? I hope someone from hiring really does monitor these boards, because your posting history, at least on this page, shows you're a guy who owns his mistakes and really wants to be here. I really hope they give you a second chance!

 

Has anyone been able to get an interview at Frontier lately with a couple internals instead of going to a job fair?

 

Where have recent newhires come from - regionals, corporate, frax, military? Any hiring-source trends?

Also, what is the most junior base these days?

 

Is it still the front side of the hiring wave?

 

Any rumors on your side about F9/NK Merger?

 

You can definitely get an interview with internal recs and without attending a job fair.

The junior domicile is Orlando. However, I believe you can get Denver or Orlando straight out of training. You might have to wait a month or two to get into Chicago. Junior captain is definitely Orlando.

F9/NK merger talks have picked up again, but I really don't think it's happening within 5 years. Frontier will go through an IPO, which is probably a year away, and then they will probably see how the stock does for a couple years before they even look into a merger. With both F9 and NK growing and making lots of money, there is no reason to merger. Wait until there is a big recession, or a big hiccup in the industry, then merger talks will get serious.

 

Just to give a more accurate idea of upgrading at Frontier. From the end of 2007 till the end of 2013 we hired around 25 pilots. Since then we have hired about 350 or so. That's why those hired at the end of 2013 are already able to upgrade. At 70 upgrades a year, give or take, it's going to be at least 4 years for the Dec 2015 new hires to upgrade. There are lots of variables of course but that's what I'm currently looking at. About 100 or so pilots hired before 2013 are currently bypassing. Keep that in mind.

 

You got to remember all these 2 year upgrades are with virtually zero airframe gain. We are scheduled to get net of 9 airplanes this year. Upgrades will float around 2 year mark for time to come.

 

Right now we're running ~8 crews per plane. Assuming that's proper staffing at peak utilization, with 9 more planes, we would need 72 more Captains is all.

To do a proper analysis we would need to know:

*How many crews per plane they want at ideal utilization.
*Accurate fleet size projections.
*Good handle on attrition numbers which will of course vary at different levels of seniority.

I tend to agree with the 4 year projection for people hired today. These brand-new-hires are ~1000 on the seniority list. Adjust for 100 by-passers, and they are effectively ~900 with respect to an upgrade. Now this would take a global seniority list 1800 strong in order for them to hold Jr CA. Which will require ~112 airframes at current utilization. It'll take 4 years to get there.

And all of this only if the music doesn't stop! Like it seems is happening at Spirit, for reasons I can't get my head around.