Can you show me the memo? I don't remember seeing anything put out through the union or Jetstream. Thx.

 

I was just relaying what was heard yesterday. Dont shoot the messenger. I am skeptical of all that was said. Who knows really whats up or where those numbers were coming from.

 

I don't think any of this is accurate

 

I interviewed about a week ago, got offered the job, and they said right now there are two classes scheduled in May. The recruiter said after that they are taking a break for "summer", then classes will resume.

I think they'll keep interviewing during that time and start putting people in a pool. I do know that they are having a tough time finding applicants that meet the new 1200 hour requirements. Who knows how true this all is, but they seemed to be unsure if they would even be able to fill classes if they wanted to continue.

 

This is the more likely scenario. I've also heard that upgrades will also stop during the summer, but will resume in the fall.

 

hey.. i was just relaying what I was told.

 

I hear ya. I guess we all know someone "in the know" and I'm not sure anyone truly knows. I sure as hell don't know so maybe everything you said is accurate.

 

16 upgrades scheduled for june-july. only one class and they have been hiring 2 first officers for every upgrade so I think it is safe to say they will keep small classes running through the summer and after that it is dependent on United's contract progress and block hour projections. I was told that if you have the time they are are putting you right into class.

 

FWIW, I've been at Expressjet since November, and you really shouldn't trust much you hear from someone who was just at the training center, or just spoke to a recruiter, or whose best friend's sister's boyfriend's brother's girlfriend heard from this guy who knows this kid who's going with the girl who saw Ferris pass out at 31 Flavors last night.

There are rumors swirling rampant about everything from tons more flying and more planes to a halt in hiring. I've learned to just take it one month at a time, wait for the official briefings from the company, and take it as it comes.

I know for a fact today that the vacancy bid that just came out only has one upgrade class. Immediately, people are taking this to mean a slowdown in hiring/upgrades is now a trend, but one data point does not a trend make. It could be because training facilities/instructors are limited and they need FO's more than captains. Yes, I'd like to see more upgrades because I've rolled the dice on a 3-year upgrade (I can hope). But we'll see what happens later in the year.

I also have official attrition numbers, and we are losing (on the xjet side), about 12-16 people per month on average. Definitely not enough to account for the 32-48 they've been hiring new each month. That being said, we are starting to see some more movement of captains towards other larger (aircraft size-wise) carriers.

I also know they just hired quite a few new instructors. Doesn't make sense to do that and then cut hiring way back all the sudden. But again, you can't extrapolate a long term trend from one piece of data.

So are we gearing up for something? Work rules? Anticipating new flying/contracts? Anticipating attrition increasing end of year? Or were we just understaffed and hiring will slow in a few months? No one really knows for sure. Like I said, one month at a time.

 

Part of the flight instructor hiring is based on what our new management wants the flight instructor job to entail. Before a flight instructor didn't have to fly the line at all and now ASA management wants 2 months training and 1 month flying the line. That is the idea anyway and we have a couple old timers who are great guys and really good instructors but don't meet the age requirement... no one knows what will happen with them.