Actually, it was the move to hub basing that caused it. Senior FO upgrades needed vacancies to happen, and expanding the hubs did exactly that. The closing of the outstations meant that those pilots displaced had displacement rights, but many lacked the seniority to use said rights to prevent a downgrade. FLL is 30 crews, and has been for over 18 months now, no expansion. Now the question is: how long to execute the changes and will the company finally do bypass pay for all the senior FOs who were awarded CA on this staffing bid. As understaffed as we are, it will be very difficult to move people through training without disrupting line ops even further. DECs are slated to be dual-qualified as they cycle through recurrent, but the upgrade classes for senior FOs will take longer. As it stands, we are 10 FOs short on the Saab in FLL and 5 FOs short on the 1900 in CLE, per the SSB results. If the company's plan to consolidate the CLE destinations to IAD ops on the Saab pans out next year, that will reduce the numbers required, but will necessitate another SSB when CLE closes as a domicile.

Remains to be seen how the $6000 signing bonus helps us with recruitment. Hub basing and proper upgrade progression *should* help with retention, exactly how much we will find out.

 

Dual Qualified DECs could be promoted to check airmen.

 

Qualifying right seat in the sim was already done fore the DEC's in initial. Right seat OE is required.

 

I think you have to be senior enough to hold CA in order to do that. The company is talking about dual-qualifying the DECs so that they have more people available to fly left seat if they run out of "regular" CAs and need coverage. They will probably make sure all of us who are about to upgrade are also dual-qualified for the same reason with FO coverage. If you are on reserve, get ready for months where you may bounce between seats from one trip to the next.

As far as pay goes, the contract doesn't specifically say anything about how it will be handled with dual-qual, but unless you actually operate a leg as a CA during a month, expect to only be making FO pay. The CBA does state that your pay rate will be based on your status, and you won't be able to bid as a CA. I expect Saab FO reserve to be a hot ticket for the recently downgraded in the months to come, as it will likely be the only way to see left-seat pay until they can upgrade again.

 

Yeah... I highly doubt that the downgraded DECs will intentionally bid reserve.

Most will be long gone by then.

 

all jokes aside, how exactly do you get hired by Silver? I have been called by basically every airline BUT them and I have my ATP, typed in the Saab and currently flying it.

 

Better question is "Why the hell would you want to?"

 

eventual FL base and it's not a bad plane to fly

 

Check your PM

 

check this out ppl

Airline Financial Analysis - Audries Aircraft Analysis