For at least one of the three legacies (wouldn't surprise me if the other two are following suit for the same reasons), the slow in hiring is to allow their training department to catch up. It's a waste of time and resources to offer applicants class dates 5 months out, only to have said applicant receive a job offer from another carrier with an earlier class date.

It's easier to tell the share-holders the current headwinds are from unexpected outside factors, rather than "We put ourselves in this position with early retirement buyouts that were too aggressive". I think Boeing is the convenient scapegoat that showed up at the "right time".

 

TPIC matters again folks. Take that first available upgrade.

 

Hiring at half the Covid rate is still one of the largest rates in 20+ years. That is more than twice the historical average.

 

Well GoJet won't be a part of a looming regional FO hiring push. Reddit posts talking about FO applicants who were about to start class in a couple weeks are being told no class dates until 2025.

Now is that a GoJet problem? Or are we about to see a bunch of other regionals follow the same path?

 

Another factor is that in the golden wave of hiring that ended (1500 and a pulse) there was a relative scarcity of 1500+ pilots. Since the Captain shortage hit, theres'been a growing glut of 1500+ hour pilots with no 121 job offers. Regionals have thousands of applicants in the pool, and the numbers are swelling each month as 135, CFI's, etc. continue to accrue hours.

Even if FO hiring increases again, it might not be felt by most in the applicant pool.

 

And college. Pick back up where you left off with that online degree.

I doubt too many airlines will re-instate a hard degree requirement (they like the flexibility to hire outside of competitive norms when it suits them), but the degree will be the next competitive hard-stop after TPIC.

 

Looks like the goal post is once again being reset.
TPIC, college degree, minimal checkride failures are prime realestste again.
Until the next hiring wave that is.

 

Posted this in another thread but certianly applies here. The short of it, no there will not be a hige regional FO push.

There are a couple of issues that are going to impact Regional hiring for the next year or so at least. First is that all the Majors have either stopped or dramatically reduced hiring due to factors that mainly have to do with aircraft issues (Pratt and Whitney engines and MAX issues) and delivery (Max delays and huge backlog of NEOs). Secondly, the Legacy’s took a lot of the Regional flying in house (This is a GOOD thing) and I don’t see them giving it back anytime soon. The Regional model was getting out of control. At Republic I had whole trips where I was doing Hub to Hub flying or Hub to big to medium sized city such as CVG, ELP, JAX, etc. Regional flying was never intended for that.

So my crystal ball says expect Regional hiring to be sporadic for the foreseeable future. I heard GoJet canceled all new hire classes and other Regionals are seeing increasing delays from CJO to class date.

 

There were also a lot of abandoned EAS routes and small town destinations that took a beating. I would expect the legacies to try and refill those markets. After all, they do feed into their networks. AA and UA were running greyhound buses!