On the Kalitta careers page, there are no jobs listed at all. Have they ceased all hiring for now? Even the previous openings I applied for states “we are no longer accepting apps for this position”.

What’s up?

Good question. We are a bit over staffed on the 747 right now, properly on the 76, and are ramping up hiring for the 777. I’ve heard multiple folks say April-ish for interviews. We are getting 4 more 777’s this year, so we will definitely be filling those slots. Hiring numbers might not be huge, though, as global freight has slowed down and DHL is slowly trying to get rid of -400’s, and the Chinese New Year puts a halt to things through February.

No one ever really knows what the Bounty Hunter is up to, but a fair guess would be getting things lined up for the 4 777’s coming this year, and possibly more down the road.

Where do you get the info that we are ramping up hiring for the 777 from?

More planes = more pilots = more hiring

...not if you’re over staffed and slowly parking a fleet. If you ask me the equation looks more like this:

Market cooldown - obsolete/parked 747 - layoffs - career site empty + four 777= Canceled classes except for a few rated pilots.


also:

no firm orders + rumors+ blind optimism = no Hiring until further notice.


I hope you are right and I am wrong.

Kalitta isn’t parking aircraft. Layoffs? The contract workers that were working Omni aircraft before they were bought out? Or are you talking other layoffs? Next?

AFAIK two 747's due for major service are being parked maybe temporarily. The layoffs I was referring to were mainly contract workers but included a few Kalitta employees as well. I don't think any of the most recent event are pointing towards growth and significant hiring in the near future.

The 4 , possibly more DHL 777F’s being discussed are CMI only. These aircraft belong to DHL and could be redeployed to another airline with similar route authorities / demographics without much difficulty. Sure the growth of pilot jobs is a positive thing , but people need to be aware the paymaster can be fickle in its Network planning of resources and infrastructure. One day you’re the hero , next day you’re the zero. Tough business this is. A bird in the hand ..

A lot of sitting going on right now. You can either be disgruntled over it, or realize you are being paid 5 figures in my case to sit in a hotel room for 2 weeks playing a Nintendo emulator, and can go explore a historically rich country.
We have a lot of 400 FO's, if you were to hire on right now, you wouldn't be senior enough to avoid getting stuck with lines back to back.

I agree that growth and significant hiring aren't in the cards right now. I would assume 777 hiring will continue given the known and anticipated growth of the subfleet. We're currently looking at 3 (temporarily?) parked 74s over the next couple months, pretty much one-for-one with the next few 777s coming online. Definitely isn't sunshine and rainbows like the last couple years, but on the other hand, Jan/Feb are usually relatively slow with the Chinese New Year and usual post-peak hangover. Remains to be seen how much effect the recently signed trade deal will affect things. I would hope some positives, but definitely nothing drastic. I'm also fairly sure THY flying goes away permanently in April or so because the Turks are taking their flying 100% in-house (several recent 777F acquisitions). That's 3ish tails that need work post-April.