Jimp

Hi All,
I recently interviewed with SWA in Dallas. Overall for me it was a very enjoyable experience without any surprises. SWA interviewed a total of 16 pilot candidates on that day and they are looking to hire 140 with classes starting in early January 2012. The hiring board is scheduled to meet on November 29 with calls going out the first week of December. This was my first interview with them; however several in my group of 8 it was their second round. It was a very diverse group with many different aviation backgrounds. I am a furloughed part 121 pilot with fifteen years experience. I am currently working in the defense industry, keeping current in a GA SEL aircraft. I have a 737 type and no time in type. My stats: total time 7,000+, turbine 6,000+, PIC turbine 1,200.
If I am fortune to be offered a class date and in order to do some advance planning if several relatively junior SWA FOs could chime in on these few questions I would be grateful. I realize that this industry changes at the drop of a hat and the Airtran merger will throw a wild card into the answers.
1. What is the “junior” base and how long before I can hold BWI? MDW?
2. As a junior reserve line holder, is there much flexibility in modifying your line via trading? Can you trade reserve days from different crew bases or are the trades only available at your crew base?
3. If you “fly your reserve line” what is the average credit hours for the month? How often are you used?
4. Are there different levels of reserve call out, i.e. a long or short call out? How is the order of call out is decided, is it first in first out or is it seniority based system? Is “sick if necessary” available?
5. Roughly how long is training? Are there any breaks in the program, i.e. from ground school to sims, or sims to IOE? Could you briefly describe the training process?
6. If I am commuting, can I obtain an airport employee parking pass for my home town airport? Who covers the cost?
Thanks in advance for your answers. Good luck to all who have interview or are going to interview. I sincerely hope we all make it on to the property.

HuronIP

Hi All,
I recently interviewed with SWA in Dallas. Overall for me it was a very enjoyable experience without any surprises. SWA interviewed a total of 16 pilot candidates on that day and they are looking to hire 140 with classes starting in early January 2012. The hiring board is scheduled to meet on November 29 with calls going out the first week of December. This was my first interview with them; however several in my group of 8 it was their second round. It was a very diverse group with many different aviation backgrounds. I am a furloughed part 121 pilot with fifteen years experience. I am currently working in the defense industry, keeping current in a GA SEL aircraft. I have a 737 type and no time in type. My stats: total time 7,000+, turbine 6,000+, PIC turbine 1,200.
If I am fortune to be offered a class date and in order to do some advance planning if several relatively junior SWA FOs could chime in on these few questions I would be grateful. I realize that this industry changes at the drop of a hat and the Airtran merger will throw a wild card into the answers.

1. What is the “junior” base and how long before I can hold BWI? MDW? OAK is the junior base. MDW junior guy hired JUL 2011 and BWI FEB 2011

2. As a junior reserve line holder, is there much flexibility in modifying your line via trading? Yes. As long as someone will trade with you, you can trade any reserve block for any reserve block or trip in any domicle.

Can you trade reserve days from different crew bases or are the trades only available at your crew base? Yes

3. If you “fly your reserve line” what is the average credit hours for the month? 90 is the minimum. Any flying you pick up on your days off goes on top of the monthly minimum.

How often are you used? I would say you will fly on almost every reserve block. You may sit a day here and there.

4. Are there different levels of reserve call out, i.e. a long or short call out? How is the order of call out is decided, is it first in first out or is it seniority based system? Is “sick if necessary” available? All reserves are on a 2 hour callout. The first day of the block of reserve in a new month is based on senority. After that they assign trips to the person that is least likely to exceed the reserve gauarentee.

5. Roughly how long is training? 45 days Are there any breaks in the program, i.e. from ground school to sims, or sims to IOE? Not typically. Maybe a few days. After IOE you get 4 days off. They give you a hard line your first bidding month, then you bid what you can hold.

Could you briefly describe the training process? Training is pretty laid back. Not really a high stress environment, or at least I didn't think so.

6. If I am commuting, can I obtain an airport employee parking pass for my home town airport? Depends on the airport, but I would say yes for the most part.

Who covers the cost? You do. I pay $30 a month where I live. Pretty cheap.

Thanks in advance for your answers. Good luck to all who have interview or are going to interview. I sincerely hope we all make it on to the property.


Good Luck!!

Stitches

Any idea how many people total they interviewed/are interviewing for the 140 jobs? I've heard approx 2 for every 1 hire. Is that accurate?

Jimp

Thanks HuronIP for the info. Looks like six months in OAK before I can get closer to the east coast.

Stitches I don’t know the interview to hire ratio. 2 to 1 is probably accurate. We were told that they usually only interview 12 per day but because the short fuse they are interview 16 or 18 per day.

HuronIP

About 220 on the list for interviews in NOV and DEC. It also said there would be a few more interviews in JAN.

CalCUBS

How long can you expect to sit reserve in OAK?

DAL 88 Driver

What was the age of the oldest pilot SWA has hired?

V169

6 months in OAK/LAS before you could bid either MDW/BWI would be highly optimistic given the AirTran guys who will start flowing into SWA starting in Feb.

It takes a while to get off reserve in OAK because it is the most junior base so when seats open up elsewhere guys bid out only to be replaced by newhires who get a hardline for their first month.

1Seat 1Engine

The answer to "how long does it take..." to get anywhere (different base, off reserve, whatever) is completely dependent on future events that we have no control over.

If you are in the very first class of this hiring group you may never sit reserve in OAK. If we hire all 140 dudes they said, you might be in HOU or MDW within a couple of months.

Or oil could spike, the economy could stagnate, terrorists could attack, a 737-300 could blow it's top, or all of the above and you could be the last guy on the list for five years. Not trying to be a downer, but I'm just trying to save you from telling your wife that you'll be working from home in 6 easy months.

SWA reserve for FO's isn't like reserve at most airlines. You will almost always make more than the guaranteed 90 trips and you will only have 1-3 days where they don't use you. Callout is always 2 hours min but I'd say 75% of the time you know the day before or at least several hours before. Predicting whether you will be called out is almost impossible since you can be called to support trips out of other domiciles if they're down to a single reserve pilot. Scheduling picks guys based on trip length compared to time remaining vs any other normal criteria.

SWA keeps very few guys on reserve compared to most other airlines. You might be suprised how easy it is to get off of reserve. You only need to be about 92% in domicile to be safe.

LukinUp

Interviewed on Wednesday and the word was 300 to be interviewed for the 140 positions (Over 5000 apps). 2 more weeks of interviews in December. No mention of anymore in January. Classes every 2 weeks starting Jan 4. Last class starts Mar 14. 20-24 per class.