If the opportunity to upgrade doesn't happen for 3 years or longer for some reason, will the retention bonus continue? The way read it says two years or until upgrade.

 

Upgrade time right now is about 26 months. It will start dropping quickly in the next few months. I think that if upgrade times reach 3 years, there will be much bigger things to worry about.

The only thing that could cause that to happen would be something incredibly damaging to the whole airline system (9/11 and the age 65 rule). At that point, all bets are off for everything.

We are just about finished with the 2014 hires upgrading.

Expect upgrade times to drop to 18 months once we get past July 2015 hires.

Here are some interesting numbers. Lets look at June 2015 through September 2015, there are only 53 pilots still on property that were hired during those 4 months. Only 19 of those are FOs. The rest are Captains. So, we will upgrade more than 4 months worth of new hires in 1 month.

Expanding it to look at a 1 year interval. July 2015 through July 16.

There are 151 pilots on property that were hired in that 1 year. Of those, 116 are active FO's. The rest are already captains or sim/ground instructors. If we are upgrading 25 a month, we will upgrade a full year worth of new hires in about 4 months.

These numbers also aren't taking attrition into account. We are losing FO's to major and LCC's at an increasing rate. Expect those times to drop even more with attrition.

 

Or when PSA's growth stabilizes and hiring is for attrition only; which, to be fair, is still a ways off.

 

That's a good point. 2 years or UNTIL UPGRADE. So essentially, if you never upgrade you would keep getting the bonus?? (extreme example but I'm trying to make a point).

 

PSA help, I'm a newbie here on the forum, and a new hire as well. I first want to say a big thanks for your insight, and the most factual info. You seem like a high quality person, and I appreciate truthfulness. You give everybody the skinny on the company, without seeming like you're a "company man" so to speak.

I peruse through these posts, trying to glean as much info as I can, yet I don't want to get too wrapped around the axle on things. However, as I was reading through, and seeing these posts about MK, what caused me concern was the talk of merging with Piedmont. Is this just tongue in cheek posting, or is this something that's really being considered to the best of your knowledge? One of the things that made me hesitant about applying with a regional for so long, aside from the crappy pay and benefits, was the constant state of flux, much of it caused by mergers. Please say this is just merely a rumor, at worst.

 

It was a joke. PDT and PSA are not merging.

 

But pdt and envoy will merge

 

Probably.

 

WHEW!!!! Thanks, LOL. Probably won't see me posting a whole heck of a lot, but I will stop by frequently to stay on top of things. Hoping to get based at DAY. Take care, and thanks for the info.

 

The folks at CVG have it set up to test at Lumkin and transportation is handled for you but you have to pay for the test yourself. Your buddy is misinformed unless something changed this week.

Check the Shepard Air website, there are a few free testing centers around the country.