Does SkyWest really need 500 pilots? Is this all for attrition?

 

Ahh yes... that was the "dream" and actual reality for many of us based in SAN too, until they closed it with very little notice and for no good reason!

 

There is a little bit of growth with the Alaska flying. We are short probably 200 pilots right now, plus attrition is picking up.

 

Is Skywest hard on mins these days? I meet the multi but short on the TT by like 130. I was thinkin about comin out to the open house.

 

If you are coming from another airline or military they will go down to 800. If you are a flight instructor they probably won't budge. If you are a month or two away from meeting the mins it might be worth going to just to show your intrest. It might help you get an interview right away once you meet mins. Who knows, they might even budge on the mins if you go, but I wouldn't count on it.

 

so i just saw on skywests page that they fly for ATA. Is this true? And if so, is southwest going to do away with this? I dont know what SWA feelings are about regionals but i know they dont have em!

 

Yea, they closed SAN for fun but don't take it personally, its just their hobby. Chip and Klen drink copious amounts of wild turkey on the housebouts and once a year they spin the "domicile roulette wheel" to see who's which base they'll do away with, thus paying a bunch of moving expenses and directly reducing employee morale all on a lark.

Its just a coincidence that all the smaller bases have gotten picked, one of these years it'll be one of the hubs we actually do a lot of flying out of. I hope its not LAX or SFO, I'd like to make it in there before I'm 40

 

It's still undecided what will be done with that flying. We are short on aircraft right now, so if that flying went away those planes would be used as spares or placed with United.

 

"Smaller bases"... The flying there increased considerably the day after they closed it! It was also a base in the 8th largest city in the country, and has always had far more flying than the SMX and SBP bases they left open. They claim they only close bases when schedules can no longer be written, this was not even close to being true for SAN!!! I would have understood if this were the case, like when SBA lost their SLC flying.... But SAN didn't lose any flying, in fact they added a bunch of new flying including SFO, DEN, LAX(on the Delta side), etc. I've spoken with our scheduling rep on several occasions and he has admitted that there was NO REASON to close SAN, and in fact it would be easy to write very good schedules for a SAN base!!!!

Apparently you weren't hosed by the closure of the bases that have been around as long as SkyWest has been around, maybe some day you'll have the joy of having your family yanked out of their chosen hometown and understand what it's like?!

 

It sounds like you've got some really important information that Klen and Chip should hear. Better send them a priority message right away, they might get it before the earning call and incorporate an announcement about reopening the base. If they only had the information you have, they could probably make better decisions

I've been through a base closure, wasn't really that surprised, I'm an airline pilot at a company that contracts to different vendors and by definition all contracts usually come to and end eventually. If you want to homestead somewhere I think I'd look at other occupations, this one certainly doesn't have a good track record where you're concerned.