A few bad apples as in PSA pilots, or from Piedmont, and Envoy? I have heard the opposite that they like our pilots because our operations are close to streamlined, and that the flow pilots do very well as they are familiar with and have experience in the AA system.

 

They have to keep the flow useful because it’s the only way they’ll attract new hires and be able to staff the WO regionals.

 

Short of the mythical B-scale with AA seniority and an RJ seat lock.

 

What do you think the actual chances of that happening are? I’ve seen a few mentions of this going around.

 

That would require a change in the APA contract. Openers next year I believe....

 

They’ll increase flow before giving WO pilots competitive pay raises...

Increasing flows instead of OTS hiring allows them to keep a greater number of personnel costs down.

 

All 3. Yes, most come over with great attitudes and do very well but the flow definitely (I've seen it firsthand by many) breeds a lazy, entitled attitude. In addition, there is a plethora of threads on here where people with all kinds of failures, criminal activity and violations are being told their only shot is to go to a wholly owned and wait for flow. Hmmmm and you wonder why they WANT to take more off the street?

 

I know many at mainline and I’m on mainline jumpseats weekly. The overwhelming majority of AA pilots don't have any real complaints about the flow-through pilots. Any “bad apples” tend to get a lot of attention which is why we hear about them more. Whether off the street or flow through, there is always at least 1 in every class. Just the way it goes.

Everything I’ve heard has been very positive. We know and understand the AAG system and don’t need as much hand-holding as some.

 

I was having this conversation with a mainline recruiter the other week. AA's pilot group is going to dramatically change over the next 10 years based on the open door flow through policy. The WOs are so desperate for pilots they are scooping up almost anyone and relying on the training process to weed them out. The personality, work ethic and background selection criteria has become much more relaxed than it was 5-10 years ago. Fact of the matter is that AA has an obligation to accept all of them. The wave of "resume refugees" is going to increase. AA will have the task of weeding them out through training and their probationary period. The number of bad apple incidents and training failures is going to increase as the bottom barrel candidates start to flow in to AA. Delta and United still hold a barrier with their prefferential interview system, retaining tools to deny employment to these less desirable candidates as they see fit.

There is no denying that the WOs today are taking relatively low experienced pilots, forcing them into upgrade, and having them learn as PIC as opposed to years with a mentor group of experienced pilots. IF time to flow decreases, these folks are going to stroll into AA with less operational decision making. Good or Bad, American is going to be a remarkably different place to work than it is today.

 

Very true, but all the legacy carrier's will see the squeeze of top tier experienced pilots as well. Delta and United have been able to largely control the quality of candidates like you said by not having a true flow. But the regional's affiliated with them have hired an equal amount of low quality/low experienced pilots as well. Eventually Endeavor, and Republic will have to upgrade less experienced pilots as well.

In terms of experience of our flows from PSA, I would argue that many of the pilots that flowed have 10 years experience and we are now seeing guy's around the 7 year range, which is still a very experienced pilot. I really don't see a guy hired today taking any less than 7 years, and if he upgrades in 2 years, he will have at least 5 years as a captain, at our current flow rate. On the other hand if flow increases and our pilots go elsewhere while waiting, then American really has no one to blame but themselves for the less than desirable candidate that gets through the cracks. When your WO's are laggards in the industry in terms of pay, benefits, domiciles and your only selling point is a flow... guess what shows up on the doorstep. Raise pay, and fix the work rules you may get a better quality entry level applicant, while having a more selective hiring process.