Any of the recent FedEx to legacy hires on here? Just curious about your experience leaving and transitioning to another airline. Is it better? Any pitfalls you didn't think of? I'm genuinely curious about how this place compares. Thanks.

 

You know we live in unusual times when people are leaving FedEx to go to a legacy. Seems like only yesterday it was the other way around.

 

The “Working for AA” thread on the AA side touched on this a little bit. If you don’t get what you’re looking for here, it might be worth looking through that thread a bit.

 

which is why it is best not to play musical chairs in this business.

 

Wasn’t fedex equivalent to ACMIs prior to 9/11? Not great but not comparable to legacy pay/benefits..

 

while I don't disagree, "this business" did not have such a hiring environment in decades. If somebody who lives in Dallas is in Year-2 at FedEx, and commutes to Memphis, and AA calls him, well....

 

Not myself, but there were two FedEx and one UPS guy in my new hire class at Widget. They seem really happy. They were all 2 years or less on their former properties. That’s about all I remember but, indeed it is very interesting times in the industry.

 

I think I read about some that recently went the other direction (Covid scare) and weren't too happy and wished they'd stayed at a legacy. Maybe was in the FedEx forum?

I'm guessing you're at FedEx and contemplating a jump?

To me jumping from a Purple/Brown to pax should be avoided unless:
-You can live in base
-You can't handle night flying

Even though things are looking rough at FedEx now, consider 2-3 years ago there were pilots with 4-5 years jumping to cargo. IMO, not a smart move unless it's for commuting or you just hate pax flying. So don't make the same mistake in the other direction. You're playing the long game here, in 5-10 years cargo might be the golden child again.

 

Factor the risk of being number 15,000 on the seniority list when and if a down turn occurs. Flying pax for a US carrier vs Cargo too. I went from Pax to Cargo for a year and a half before moving overseas. I didn’t think I’d make through OE. After the first week, I said to myself, what was I thinking? Cargo is the way to go… No hassle, no fuss, no muss. It’s disturbiing to hear how often and how many diversions occur due to disruptive pax.

Think long and hard before making the jump to pax ops.

 

Definitely valid concerns...to a point. I flew ACMI for a little bit and I heard the "cargo is sooo much better" often. The thing is, pax is really not that bad. Yes there are absolutely headaches, but boxes have their own headaches.

Boxes fly at night, you're always remote parked, grueling schedule changes (under old 121 rest rules) caused by late cargo, and finally DG/Hazmat. If you look carefully at the 121 accident rates for cargo vs pax the difference is sobering. In some ways I fully agree, no pax is great. But flying around at night, over the ocean with a bunch of DG and hoping a pallet with some lithium-ion batteries on it doesn't light itself on fire when you have no main deck extinguishing is to me less fun than potentially having to deal with an unruly pax. And yes, both those scenarios are remote, but just providing a counterpoint.

Also, diversions due to disruptive pax may seem common but I don't think they actually are, they just make a big splash when they happen. Diversions for medical emergencies and weather are much more common.

Edit: To reiterate, I don't think you should jump from FedEx unless you can drive to work at the new place or hate night flying. This is just more color on the pax vs cargo.