Mesaba - Hiring Mins Reduced
 

Today Mesaba announced that hiring minimums have been reduced to:
600 Total Time
50 Multi-Engine

Our established minimums have always been 1000/100.

"Please be assured that those with less than the previously established minimums will only be selected after careful evaluation by a flight manager. These candidates will have met established criteria that credit their experience to the equivalent of the previous minimums...."

"Mesaba has always been and will always be committed to a culture of safety and professionalism..."

"...give us the opportunity to recruit good, qualified people before someone else does."

So there you have it. Mesaba has now joined the movement towards hiring lower time but "equivalently experienced" pilots.

Welcome aboard.

Are they changing any of the other procedures such as contracts or payed training, payed hotels. I don't really know that much about you guys current procedures so don't take offense to those questions....or any other ramblings you might hear from me :D

Mesaba pays you your 75-hour guarantee from day one of training. Single occupancy hotel is also paid for those who live greater than 50 (I think) miles from the training center in Eagan, MN. The contact is the same with the exception of our TA which has modified pay, insurance, added PBS and changed how CDO's are handled as well as some other things. 3 year equipment lock for new hires. You will bid your base in training. You will pay 50% of your uniform cost, payroll deducted over 6 months.

I am happy to answer specific questions, just post them.

Did you guys take a pay cut or not?

I am presently running cargo ut of PDX and am looking to apply with a commuter airline. I see Mesaba is interviewing again. I am considering Air Wisconsin as well as Skywest. I have well over the minimums for a commuter. Was wondering if it is a good time to apply with Mesaba, or should I attempt one of the other two. Any insight is appreciated.

Yes we did, 5%

Where would you like to be based? What are your career goals? All the regionals have advantages and disadvantages. You have to decide what is important to you, rank those things and start looking at regionals that satisfy them.

Mesaba is a good place to work. You will not get rich here, you will not upgrade lightning quick. You will fly with an excellent group of pilots, scheduling is generally easy to get along with, we have a lot of really nice work rules in our contract and we are a top choice for people wanting to live in MSP. This is a comfortable place to be for a lot of people, hence our relatively senior workforce.

RJ85, thanks for taking the time to answer some questions. Hopefully i won't bore you with mine, but I have always had my eye on Mesaba and i'm excited for the new wave of hiring that's gonna be going on there.

Would you pretty much have your choice of equipment at this point in time? With the contract as it is, how easy of a place is it to commute? Is DTW a junior base, and if it is how easy of a commute would that be from BUF?

The first several classes of new hires are likely to be all into the CR9. The first 4 jets are going to MSP, so there will be only one choice of base for now. DTW will be next followed by MEM for the CR9.

In general, the bases in order of seniority are: MSP, DTW, MEM. MSP is VERY senior for all captains and the Saab F/O's.

BUF to DTW doesn't seem that bad. I think NWA has 4 or 5 flights per day. I don't know about anyone else that flies that route. It is always nice to have a couple of choices of airlines when you are commuting, just in case. If you get the CR9 and MSP, within 6 months you should be able to bid DTW since we will start placing crews there probably late summer/early fall at the latest.

We do have a commuter clause, which is nice in an emergency. You can only use it twice in a 12 month period before you get "talked to", so you still have to be conciencious of your commuting choices.

So there's no chance of getting MEM out of training then?