Frontier Questions
 

Anyone out there who has or currently flys for Frontier? If so, what do you think about it? ie. Working conditions, companies future, ect. . .

Also, I heard they are one of the hardest to get on with, any truth to this?

Also how do they compare to JetBlue or AirTran. The pay is better at Frontier, but which one has the best future, and best work environment?

edik

You need to look beyond hourly wages before you determine where the "pay is better". There is a lot more involved in total compensation than what you can get from airlinepilotcentral.

Frontier
 

Frontier is currently up against a leaner UAL and now SWA. If you have watched their cash flows it seems to me that they have been weakened significantly by almost five years of 911, UAL in bankruptcy and high fuel prices. No one can predict the future of the airlines but I would carefully study them all if I were you.

SkyHigh

Reagrding your original question, I truly enjoy working here at F9. We have some of the leanest costs in the industry, and our CASM is lower than SWA (minus fuel). The environment is upbeat, lots of dedicated happy Denver customers, and there is a genuine sense of relaxation at work - I love it. There are always things that can be improved, particularly with some of the upper management folks - HR, etc. but we just had Chris Collins from JBLU come over as VP of Operations, and he's been given carte blanche to make whatever changes he feels necessary. No, the sky isn't falling simply because UAL is out of bankruptcy (they have a long way to go in terms of cutting costs and sustaining any sort of profitibility) and SWA hasn't been as much of a factor as many thought they would be. Who knows - time will tell, and little ol' F9 is chugging along doing what it does best, and I'm proud to work here. I don't see F9 going away any time soon, and (I'm of course a little partial here) I think we have a superior product, domestically, to UAL and SWA. Just my .02 worth.

I know lots of guys flying at F9. They all love it. It has become a class act, and in fact, I am flying my parents out on them (paid for tickets) day after tomorrow. They kick SWA's ass in every metric. The pilots are great, FA's are great, nice new planes, etc. I pray they prosper.

Thanks for the kind words Zingle. I'm happy that F9 hasn't given in to the "nasty politics" stuff that others have - some might view that as "not aggressive enough" but I view it as staying the course and doing what we do best.

BTW, Edik - in comparison to JetBlue or Airtran...no idea. I have a feeling that the cultures are fairly similar, and it's a crapshoot as to which airline(s) will be around in another 10-15 years. I have friends at both JetBlue and Airtran, and, just like F9 and any other airline, there are improvements that could be made, but their overall impressions are that those are good places to work. I can only speak for myself, and I'm enjoying life - it's nice to work at a place where you can take pride in a job well done by the company, and I'm not a greedy or bitter person to begin with...good luck!

How hard is it to get hired by Frontier? What are the typical backgrounds of the recent new hires (total times, PIC times, contacts, etc.)?

I know one guy who recently started at Frontier. He had been flying part 135 passengers & air ambulance for probably five years or so. He probably had around 3000 - 4000 total time with 1000+ turbine (TurboCommander and Learjet) PIC.

Executive Flight
 

Executive Flight?

SKyHigh

A friend and myself recently went and met with one of the chief pilots at Frontier. Not many of us AF types know someone at the company so we thought we would go check out the operation ourselves. Everything we saw and were told sems to point towards a bright future :D The only negative for us was...you need to have someone who works at the company use one of there "silver bullets" to get you an interview :(

Yup.

(This is just filler to make the system happy. Please ignore it.)

happy to answer
 

Just finishing up groundschool here at F9 after 8+ years at Mesa.....this is a first class organization that treats their employees great. There are 12 of us in class. I would guess the average total time is in the 7000-9000 range, with the low time guy having about 4500 of corporate and check time. Feel free to pm me if you want any specific questions answered. As far as i know, Silver Bullet is really the only way to get a interview still....but that may change if the pool of silver bullet candidates drys up. Cheers!

I have the utmost respect for F9, however(generally speaking) aren't they limiting themselves on potential candidates? IMHO

Jetalc, have you heard anything, on the F9 side, about a possible alliance between Westjet and Frontier? I know a few pilots here are starting to mention some initial contact? Have you heard anything?

Do silver bullet recommendations have to come from Frontier pilots who have actually flown with you or is just knowing you enough?

F9 and Westjet
 

Well, that's a new one on me. Given the history there with SWA, I wouldn't doubt that F9 would possibly take a stab at supporting/complementing Westjet. However, I haven't heard anything - not even on our own little rumor mill. Sounds like you guys are doing well, and it sounds like it would sure be a cool combo.

Regarding the silver bullet (I know - it's a ripped-off term from Alaska...we really need to come up with something different), I believe it's better if the silver bullet has actually flown with the candidate, since the recommender has to fill out a form describing their experiences with the candidate - specifically regarding what type of pilot they are as well as what type of employee they are. Once the candidate is hired, it is expected that whoever recommended the candidate will mentor them. The best person to ask is Gary (F9Recruiter) - he is actually pulling the apps and selecting who comes on in for an interview.

And C175 - in these times, there have to be some limiting factors. Even the number of silver bullets out there would probably fill up all the ground schools for the next several years. There have been several people who have been hired without a silver bullet, but an internal recommendation is still valued very highly. There are thousands of qualified applicants, possibly yourself included, but there are only a limited number of ground school slots. How would you do it differently? It's not a matter of those with internal recommendations being "better pilots" - it's simply a matter of those who already work for the company seem to have a firm grasp on the type of person who would fit in, and their recommendations contribute to a comprehensive process developed to benefit both the employee and the company (whew, sorry about the long sentence). Valuing internal recommendations is not a slam toward those without a rec, simply a bonus for those with one. But what do I know...I'm just a line pilot...

Good luck to all who have applied and are interviewing!

Jetalc thanks for the info. I have a couple more questions that hopefully you ( or anyone else in the know) might be able to answer. Does Frontier have a pref bid system or a conventional line bidding system? Once lines are awarded do you have the ability to trip-trade, drop, or pick up from open time or with other crewmembers?

IslandBoy -
The answer is yes. No, we don't have pref bidding, but in my opinion we have something better. Once the lines are awarded, you can drop trips like crazy, and then there is daily opentime where you can then add/drop/swap like a madman as well. Picking up monthly open time (immediately after the lines are awarded, and everybody drops what they don't want, there is a period where you can sift through what everybody has dropped and pick up what you want) is based mostly on seniority, but daily opentime is first come/first served. You can drop pretty much everything you don't want, and most often there is enough left in daily opentime to pick up other stuff you do want. Only a couple of stipulations - you can drop down to 50 hours during the course of the month, but you have to finish the month with at least 70 hours to avoid a powwow with the CP. You're encouraged to always take vacations, of course, but if you feel like makin' a few extra bucks (like I did last month - new house, Daddy's got bills) you can work over any part of your vacation (i.e., daily opentime) and easily pick up some cashola. Everything over 82 hours is paid at time and a quarter, and I was able to accrue 118 hours of credit, while still hanging on to my 15 days off. Plus, I still have vacation left for another part of the year. Scheduling is definitely one of the strong areas at F9, and my experience with the schedulers is that they have always been tremendously professional and courteous.

Hope that helps.

Definitely helps, thanks again for the great info Jetalc