Same story at JB, and a combined JB/NK will only worse for junior folk.

 

Spirit is upgrading 10/month. It takes 8months+ to hold a line. Do the math.

 

Definitely AA, especially if you’re not set on a place to live. All coastal Florida towns are pretty much the same, just move to one closer to MIA.

 

Not sure where you got the 30% is widebody metric, but the rest of this message is spot on.

Jr captain at NK who is looking at a bare minimum 2 years of reserve ahead. (Already been here 4+)

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Frontier upgrades have come to a crawl as well. Very junior pilot group, very, very few retirements in the next 10 years as a percentage of total pilot group. The only way you move up is growth, massive growth. While F9 will tell you they are growing massively with aircraft deliveries, they still need to get and retain the pilots. They are losing pilots at about the same rate they are hiring them. AA, 15K pilot group. nearly half will retire in the next 7 years. 2K new hires this year, 2K next. People like to talk about the ****ty contract, and that is a fact but the movement at AA can't be argued with. Guys hired this year by the time they hit the line already had 3-400 below them. This year, by the time the early retirements flush out there will be approximately 1000-1100 gone from the top. One guy I know is already 60% in base and hasn't hit the line yet at AA. Not saying where you should go, but this is some info to consider. Interview everywhere, remember you don't have a decision to make until you have a job offer. Even then, if a prettier girl asks you out you can always jump in her bed later.

 

Aspiring to a seat in a widebody is a commonly held goal, but I wonder if it's all it's cracked up to be. Widebody aircraft are beautiful awesome machines, and to be in command of one would be really cool. But then there's the lifestyle that goes with it. Back side of the clock flying and week long pairings, and the trips to the sim for landing currency. Most guys that love to fly, love the takeoffs and landings. Of course some days on narrow body aircraft are ridiculous and exhausting with legs in excess of 3 or 4, and my own experience is solely narrow body flying so I'll be interested if anyone with a few years on a widebody fleet would provide some better insight.

 

The thing is, if you work for a company that has widebodies, the narrowbodies are the junior equipment. WB FO could go senior to NB cap. That means that to be 50% as a NB cap you only need to be 50% company wide, as opposed 25% in a single fleet company. And yes, it obviously depends on how much WB you fly in house for those numbers to work, but the gist stands.

 

The 30%? Pulled it out of the nether region.

 

Not on a widebody, but from looking at their schedules-

- fewer days at work
- fewer legs per day (usually 1)
- longer layovers
- more interesting destinations
- rest period every leg
- higher hourly rate
- usually commutable (late shows, early releases)

 

I don't know. I'm starting at AA in July and I'm on edge about the economy plus a potential age 67 rule. Seems like those two coupled together could stop the party real quick.