At that time, April 9 was the only CRJ.

Well, it looks like the slowdown that was rumored is starting to show up. At least it's not a complete stop. Others have said they've been offered the May 21 class (I'm assuming the 12 should have been 21) so it looks like XJet is tentatively looking to hire around 100 to 125 guys in the second half of the year assuming 20 to 25 guys a class.

Class sizes are almost always 16.

That kind of fits - attrition right now is about 16/month on the ERJ side, so it looks like now that they are caught up on staffing they are just planning on keeping up with attrition the rest of the year. Too bad, we all thought something big might be in the works. But, things can change.

I stand corrected. That would put projected hiring at 80 for the second half of the year.

Consider this. In November 2011, Eagle and XJet were projecting 600 new hires for a combined total of 1200.

Fast forward to April of 2012 and Eagle, rather than hiring 600, has furloughed 70 and XJet has plans to hire a total of 250 or so.

Rather than adding 1200, the two look to be adding just 180 to 200. I might be wrong, but 2012 has the feel of what happened in 2008.

Don't forget the mess at Colgan, etc. I could have told you the Eagle estimates were BS by Oct of last year with all the grumbling of bankruptcy at AMR. Not that that makes it any better.

Here at Expressjet I have many more people underneath me but have not moved up significantly since I came on line. All that means is I fly less and make less money.

By what the dude a few posts above me said about projected hiring by October, that would put the 2012 new-hire number somewhere around 300. Not bad if you ask me, considering those projections he gave go only until the beginning of this Fall. Attrition is slowly but surely happening here (with no legacies hiring mind you). I wouldn't be surprised if hiring continues throughout the rest of the year.

I know things are subject to change on a whim in this industry, but I think that Expressjet and SkyWest are one of the few OK places to be for the moment, especially when you take a look at what's going on with Eagle and Pinnacle/Colgan.

I agree with you. I didn't mean to downplay the hiring of 250-300 pilots. That's good news, especially considering what's going on at other places. And you're right, they seem to have plans to hire through the rest of the year with five classes scheduled in the last six months of the year. I was just mentioning it was disappointing that as many as 1200 new hires between Eagle and XJet may end up being 250 or so when Eagle's current furloughs are figured into the equation. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

I don't think it is a real slowdown. If they were to throw you in class now you wouldn't hit the line until Aug Sept which is our lowest block hour time. I would expect larger classes mid summer to early fall for the holidays.

The latest rumor has all the 135s out of the desert and more 145's for new CPA. All occurring in the fall...discuss!

Kind of tired of discussing unsubstantiated rumors to be honest. Whatever happens, happens. You want to post something with a real source or evidence, fine, but for now... Yawn.

Go back and sit in your corner....

During the interview, they mentioned puling out four 135s..."possibly more."

Right now there are for sure either 6 or 7 total that have been pulled out of the desert. Some people are sure they are ALL coming back. Some think this is it. The number of total lines systemwide seems to have really jumped up for May, but we are getting into the summer. There are some routes where we seem to have at least temporarily picked up some slack from Colgan / Pinnacle's United flying, but nothing concrete has been announced at all. We will take it as it comes, but as far as I can tell, the airline seems to be heading in the right direction. Staffing is better, some improvements have come down the pipe (our Zed fare program is back and ramping up, for example), we seem to be getting some of our maintenance headaches under control, etc.

That being said I'm still a pretty junior FO, so what do I know? But I'm looking forward to a relief line next month for the first time. I'm hoping that will ease the strain and annoyance of being a reserve commuter.

How many 135s are parked in the desert?

20 plus or minus a few 135's were parked.

I'm sure they will continue through the rest of the year. It's just seriously hard to project. Right now, the combined airlines have about 20 or so leaving a month. I expect when unical hires this fall attrition will drastically increase. Many senior FO's are jumping ship to overseas operations that just require hours and turbine time. I fully expect that this fall the combined ops will start losing 50+ a month. By 2014 im sure it will be over 100.

I talked to peter sailer(head of manpower&planning) when I was in the schoolhouse a couple of days ago and he said once the classes from the last perm bid are done... No more upgrades. Also he said that they are done with new hire classes by the end of may..
ANNND.. Only 6 SRJ have been pulled from Kingman.

Ya somehow I doubt that

Peter is known for covering his tracks. Only rely on him for what is happening this month.

The bottom line holder this month in ATL 200 FO category (not counting people with vacation) was 302 out of 377. Wonderful.

No more upgrades until the end of summer when they are starting back up again and they get a look at the fall block hours. They can't plan more then a few months out due to CAL's contract talks.

Nearly 30% reserve in DTW!

23% reserves CR7 ATL. Two 4-day's left for open time. Reserves this month are sitting around 30 hours for this month so far. Lot's of sub 70 hr lines next month...


Now... Why in the world are we hiring on the CRJ side? Staffing seems very very fat over here.

Two words: sum mer.

Regardless, if you didn't force people to build 100 hour lines, you wouldn't have 20%-30% reserves. Which obviously is exactly why they are doing it.

Ding ding ding we have a winner. I guess the 700 lines are lower due to the reduced airframes but the 200 in Atlanta has most people's awards around 90 hours (I saw as high as 105). But hey it's a lot easier to force them to work all month and stock pile reserves (which ASA loves) rather than fight the company and get a better balance of schedules and more line holders.

Also, who is surprised that the summer block hours are all of a sudden miraculously higher than anticipated. Isn't like we've heard that before

P-B-S.....P-B-S..........P-B-S!!!!!!


But no, its the pairing generator to blame for such little open time! :rolleyes:

what is the reserve coverage with hard lines?

Usually you can divide the amount of hard lines in half, then thats how many pilots on the secondary bid. 1/3 of these pilots get hard lines from the leftover open time, the rest are on reserve. All i know is there were HUNDREDS of trips in open time for us to improve our schedules with. We've also had our May schedules for almost 2 weeks FWIW.

I know, I've read it a hundred times. Your schedules are better, your contract is better and you're all ace pilots. I am just curious what % in seat leaves you on reserve? Also curious, what % of reserves work weekends?

They target 15-20% per seat per base. Often 3-5% higher in IAH to cover other bases as needed.

Target? What about actual? Does is vary as much as ours seems to? Our "target" is as low as 10-12% with PBS, but that seems to be a fallacy at this point.

. Relief lines : )

I am an August 2011 hire in Newark with a mid range relief line. With the exception of Easter weekend - I have not worked a weekend since January. Most weeks - I work Monday - Thursday.

All 30 of them were parked in 08. Seven are back and flying.

I'm guessing it takes a whole lot of reserves to cover hundreds of trips.

good god. Spring 2008 hires in Atlanta are on reserve, some without weekend golden days next month. A friend of mine got reserve next month on the 700. Fall of 2007 hire date.

Aside from the useless gripes of how stale this place is, do the reserve at expressjet all work weekends though? If relief line holders get weekday trips, who flies the weekends?

Deleted......

Jealous much?