Hello All,

I'm currently a CFI at 850 hours and intend to be at ATP minimums by next summer.

I was curious about a few things:

Do you believe the intensity of pilot hiring at PSA and Republic still be fairly strong next summer or will they have filled most of the gaps by that point?

(Related to the last question) Do you believe a long wait time could be expected between the interview and a class date next summer?

Does one airline or the other currently have a better commuting policy or does it just depend on where the commute begins and ends?

 

Lol. The gaps will never be filled at any regional. PSA is still taking planes from Envoy and Republic is saying they intend on bidding on additional flying. But only time will tell.

Big announcement tomorrow though from Republic.

 

Disagree.

Endeavor and Envoy are done hiring for the foreseeable future. When they do start classes up again, they will fill them from a pool they already have.

It's not unfathomable for the 'shortage' to be finished by next year.

 

Ok let’s get to the facts.

Yes, Envoy and Endeavor have enough applicants and FOs that they have either slowed or stopped hiring FOs for the time being. You know who else did this 2 years ago, Compass, and now they are desperate for FOs. Envoy is still running classes of 30 every two weeks, they are just taking their cadets and RTP guys instead of their OTS FO hires.

The reason for this is an internal shortage of Captains. Envoy is offering huge bonuses to DECs right now and can’t get enough. The reason for their hiring slowdown is an imbalance of captains to FOs. Once the imbalance is fixed, FO hiring will ramp up again.

We are talking about 2 regionals out of about a dozen, every other regional is DESPERATE for pilots right now and can’t keep up with attrition. Look at how many airlines are renegotiating their contracts to attract people right now.

All you have to do is look at retirement numbers at the big 5 to see that saying the “shortage” will be over next year and that hiring will slow is ridiculous. That’s probably one of the most ridiculous statements I’ve read on here in awhile.

 

Agree with all of this but would add that Envoy is also having a budget issue with AAG due to the increased flying they have picked up. This should resolve soon enough and I think that too will cause hiring to pick up.

This year most of the late 2017/early 2018 new hires will be eligible for upgrade, so that should solve the Envoy Captain problem.

 

Yes I think the intensity will be the same.
I think most commute policy's are the same try twice before calling and reciving an excused unpaid absence.

I think long wait times are reactionary, so if you could predict it, it would then be prevented, and visa versa.

Look at a training wait as job security, if they could move pilots around faster and easier, they would, and you lack of wait would be negated by a lack of job security, and you'd be going through new hire programs constantly.