Macchi30

what about the Via Air “Cadet Program”?

pilotguy7

Honestly . . they need to just tap the brakes for a bit. Stop trying to grow. Get caught up with the crews, get EVERYONE . . . from ground folks to dispatchers TRAINED and following the same SOP. If it was me, I'd stop all but the most profitable flying right now. . scale back . . . and build a great foundation. Then go kill it!!!!! Everything you stated as of why this is a good place to work is true. . but if you continue to make nobody's life good (including the PAX), then you WILL FAIL!!!!! Tap the breaks, re-group, set a new standard for the company, admit your past faults to the public, and then go kill it.

But management has a history of trying to grow, then ****ing everyone off . . . then finding a new niche of routes and pilots and doing the same thing over again!

This is classic stupidity . . doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results!

Cujo665

I do not disagree with any of that.

They either need to do as you said, and pull back....
or
find a way to retain guys better while new ones come online. The staffing increase would solve those problems too.


In either case, they need to stop adding new routes without growing the pilot group first.

Cujo665

They have 8 new pilots in the training program that just started today.
It’s a small pilot group, so any vacancy impacts schedule quality more than larger companies. With other re-hires coming back that only need requals they should have more staffing than needed soon which should greatly improve schedule quality.

Cujo665

It is 8 in the class, and 2 that left in March are either back or coming back too. Of the 4 that had just resigned, 3 asked to come right back and missed maybe 2-4 days of work. The other guy started at Endeavor.

They provide a crew house condo in Orlando now too. So no need to rent a crash pad. Single occupancy rooms. Crew car provided also to go out and around in.

CBreezy

Haha. Cujo is in here talking to himself.

Cujo665

Clarifying the earlier post actually. YMMV.

The scheduling deficiencies still exist, and I think are actually a bit worse than before. One base runs 4 leg days with about 8 hours duty time. The other routinely runs 6 leg days with 12 hour duty days. This is more the result of short staffing than anything else.

Wearebroke

If you like the idea of working for a 121 carrier that has a 135/91 mindset, Via is for you. Our 'competition' has 7 pilots/tail. Via? 4'ish.

Good luck to all that work here. It's only your certificate.

Cujo665

If you’re going to compare staffing per hull, you need to also compare utilization. Via’s planes typically fly an 8-13 hour day. Other regionals have their birds flying 5am till 11pm, an 18 hour day. Via planes fly 5 days a week with 2 days at each base with no scheduled flying at all last I checked. Much lower utilization would obviously require much lower staffing per hull. It’s not an accurate comparison you’re making. By the way, it’s not 7 pilots per hull, it’s 5-6 crews.... 10-12 pilots per hull at other regionals with higher utilization. That 10-12 includes airport standby pilots at each base and scheduled reserve pilots at each base which Via doesn’t really use either. Just those alone would be 18 standby and reserve pilots a day at the other regionals for two bases. Via definately needs more pilots, especially with anticipated growth coming.

I do not disagree with your statement about a 135 type mentality of “get the job done” but if you think Via is the only carrier where you protect your certificate yourself, then you haven’t talked with very many guys at other regionals. Go read these msg boards, they’re full of guys complaining about having to protect their license one way or another.

Being a professional includes knowing when not to go fly. That isn’t unique to Via.

Great first post. Ax to grind ?

Cujo665

New $5,000 signing bonus for pilots already typed in E145.

Makes first year FO salary $55k and first year CA $83k