Lalo37

According to this website, they are supposed to hire very few this year.
Anyone have any info as to whether that still holds true with the whole age 65 thing and all the merger talks going on? Just curious

lumax

Unfortunately that is true. A position bid was cancelled and replaced with a smaller one due to the age 65 and earlier retirement of 2 MD's. That equates to less hiring.
Is hiring also slowing due to merger talks? That's the million dollar question.
We'll all find the answer at about the same time.

sparerib11

Position Bid results due today. Hoping to get to SEA sometime this year. With little/no hiring it'll probably be a while.

alaska65

Well, it is perfectly understandable that the bid was cancelled insofar as we are clearly adequately staffed. And all those flights cancelled because there were not enough SEA reserves over the Christmas-New Years week were the pilot's fault, because we were being inconsiderate. (tongue-in-cheek)

Realistically, we all know that the airline is not adequately staffed, but what the second floor cannot figure out is how many pilots we really do need. This age 65 just threw another unknown into the mix, and with typical indecision they decided to refrain from hiring and just do nothing.
The folks on the second floor really are clueless how to get the airline out of this morass. They lack authority from the Board to improve the pilot contract, yet the Board wants a contract before summer, and the pilots are in a state of passive rebellion. And Gregg has no clue what to do now but read from the Ford & Harrison playbook. Lets see what kind of leader this Gary Beck from Delta is.

GolfKilo73

Management thought that the age 65 rule was going to mean retaining pilots, but what they very obviously did not realize was that Alaska pilots have very little incentive to continue flying past 60. We still have a pension and those who were planning to retire prior to the 65 ruling will probably leave. Sure, some will stay, but not in significant numbers. We've already seen a few guys leave at 60 even after the 65 ruling. I've personally talked to several pilots who are near retirement and every single one has said they intend to go at 60.

All the while management sits on it's collective hands and announces plans to hire a laughable--50 pilots in '08. So now we are short staffed which results in cancelled flights and somehow this makes good business sense. I have to ask--"are cancelled flights because of inadequate staffing COST NEUTRAL?"

Z_Pilot

The January class, a class of 8 has been postponed (indefinitely). I think it was to start on Monday.

skid

I thought i read a while back that Alaska had plans to hire about 75. That was cut to 8 sometime a few weeks before the age 65 deal came out. AKA the class of 8 that is on hold is all the planned hiring at this time?!.?!! Any ideas if that is accurate info?

FlyAK

When was that Jan. class supposed to start? I've talked to several more senior types who've said the retirement lump sum gets reduced the more you stay past 60, so those making the decision will have to make the decision to stay or leave carefully I guess. My guess is more will choose to go than stay...

Z_Pilot

Monday the 14th.
No official word, though.
My guess is that the class of 8 will eventually happen, then no more hiring for '08.
I also suspect that management is counting on everyone staying until 65, but I doubt that will be the case.

Good Luck, Nonetheless.

Justin Case

Don't let this management at Alaska fool you. Alaska is staffed exactly how they want to be. All the cancelations recently were planned. Alaska will continue to let cancelations happen. This is business and we are in negotiations.