Local got the email today that the final "Definitions" are being hammered out now, since they added a lot of new terms to the contract. Also working out a few examples to put in there and figuring out an implementation timeline. They're saying a TA should be out by the end of the week. Take that for what it's worth. Don't believe it till you see it.

 

I hear ya. I'm coming up on 1200 so I'll probably be interviewing next month. I can at least make a buddy of mine $100. Maybe even $1000 more depending on the equipment I'm offered.

 

Dear Co-workers,

Good evening, I want to take a few minutes of your time to bring you up to speed on an announcement that will hit the wire tomorrow morning. As you probably have read, United Airlines has made a decision to significantly reduce the number of flight departures at their CLE hub. In their press release, they mentioned that their decision to reduce flight service was prompted by news that some of their regional airline partners were experiencing difficulties in hiring suitable pilots to crew their aircraft. That disclosure has caused quite a bit of media attention as to whether or not we (our country) are experiencing a shortage of qualified pilots. I’ll come back to that question later, but the reality is that our airline, more specifically Chautauqua, is having a very difficult time finding new-hire pilots that meet the 1,500 hour rule AND meet our quality and competency requirements.

It is no secret that many of our small jet, fixed-fee agreements are scheduled to expire this year. In fact, we have 41 ERJs which, unless extended, will expire off contract over the course of this year. Since our successful Chautauqua financial restructuring in 2012, we have consistently said we expect to be able to keep these aircraft in productive service for years to come; however, the pilot staffing challenges are changing that outlook.

Starting shortly after the new law became effective in August of last year, we began to see a steady decline in the number of qualified applicants applying at Republic. As a consequence, by the end of last year, we were concerned enough about the trends that we reached out to all our partners to get their read on the situation and to warn them we could have real problems keeping our aircraft properly staffed. The applicant flow problems continue to persist in the new year and it has become all too clear that we can no longer consider extending all our small jet contracts; in fact, we have asked one partner (United) to accelerate the removal of our 12 ERJ aircraft so we can redirect Chautauqua flight crews to EJET training. Effective April 1, we anticipate ending our Chautauqua ERJ flying for United. We also are no longer able to extend our American Connection agreement covering 15 E140 aircraft. Those aircraft will be removed from service between March 1 and August 15. In total, we plan to remove 27 small aircraft, which we had otherwise expected to continue to operate in to the future.

Of course, this is very disappointing news and will naturally cause some of our co-workers to have real concerns over their personal situations. Wayne is on his way to Louisville to discuss the situation with our team down there, but let me say we see tremendous value in our Louisville base and with our people there, and we have no intention to do anything other than keep it running normally and bring work into the facility to replace the work that may be affected by this development.

We also intend to continue to receive new E175 aircraft for American. Those 25 aircraft are scheduled to go into service this year. And while we have not made any final decisions, we do still have four Q400 aircraft that were anticipated to go in to service this year for United, which we would like to satisfy. Of course, it all depends on our ability to find the kind of women and men who can meet our standards.

So do we have a pilot shortage? Well if you define a shortage as not having enough people that meet the requirements of the 1,500-hour rule and not being able to pass muster with our standards, then yes, we have a shortage, and we are not alone. However, I do not think the country has a shortage of truly qualified pilots, at least not yet. There are ample pilots for today’s needs, but these young people, who have graduated with aeronautical aviation degrees no longer qualify for employment. And there are not enough ways for them to get the hourly time the new law requires. It is a real catch 22, and one you will probably be reading a lot more about for the foreseeable future.

Longer term (and that may only be two or three years away) we will certainly have a much bigger problem, even if the hour requirement is reduced from 1,500 hour to say 500 hours. Why? Because the age 65 rule will mandate retirements for nearly 18,000 mainline pilots over the next 10 years. It started last year with about 1,000 retirements. That number grows steady over the next 10 years. Even under the old system, our country simply does not have the ability to train that many replacement pilots. It’s the same problem countries like China and India have been dealing with for years. We are going to have to develop an entirely new way to train future aviators in this country. But that won’t be much help in the here and now.

Finally, it is reasonable to ask how the lack of a new pilot CBA has affected our recruiting situation. It’s a fair question, but a hard one to answer. It seems reasonable enough that not having a new CBA isn’t helping and certainly may be hurting our efforts in recruiting new pilots now, even though it wasn’t a problem before the new law went into effect last year. However, while we very much want to get the negotiation behind us, the reality is a new CBA won’t create a single new qualified pilot in the USA. I do think it will help bring some people to us that otherwise do not want to consider Republic because of the uncertainty here, but that is a hard thing to quantify. Suffice to say we want to close out the negotiations with a fair deal and, when that happens, if it allows us to hire more pilots such that we could staff more aircraft, of course we will discuss adding these small jets back to service with our airline partners.

For the time being, we should all keep our focus on providing the outstanding levels of service that have become a hallmark of our three great companies. We have faced challenges in the past and as a team, we have prevailed. We will face challenges in the future and, together, again, we will prevail.

God bless,

Bryan

 

Looks like that rumor about not being able to keep up with AMR was partially true…. and once again, Bedford would rather park airplanes than treat his people right.

 

Yeah Bedford would much rather downsize than give us a fair contract. Love the threats regarding accepting the new TA or losing flying cause we can't attract pilots.

Any new guys thinking of coming here should think twice. Losing this many aircraft means longer upgrades (currently 6 years) and potential furloughs.

 

Catch 22- to get more flying these days, you need a cheap substandard contract. To staff said flying, you need a good above standard contract. That magical land in the middle is what myths and legends are made of. Perhaps unicorns can be found galloping through the meadows there being ridden by the tooth fairy.

 

OMG Bryan Bedford. You're a moron. YOU and your ilk are the reason why young people don't enter this profession. You and your airline management peers have spent the past DECADE treating your pilots like crap and you wonder why we aren't telling our kids to become airline pilots?

And the US is like China and India that we don't have the infrastructure to train pilots? Really? You're comparing the US training capacity to countries that still have a foot in the third world pool? You do realize that we have PLENTY of capacity here in the US to train pilots, don't you? In fact, it's being utilized by OTHER COUNTRIES to train THEIR pilots instead of ours. Apparently young people in THEIR countries are provided with the proper incentives to become pilots. I bet they make more than $20K/year, too.

We HAVE HAD the training infrastructure to create enough pilots to cover retirements for the PAST FEW DECADES. It would be really easy to get that kickin' again but we're missing an important piece of the "pilot making" puzzle.....THE FINANCIAL INCENTIVE FOR YOUNG PEOPLE TO ENTER THIS PROFESSION.

Instead of blaming your recruiting problems on regulations that you knew were coming YEARS AGO, take a look in the mirror. I'm sure there are at least several hundred pilots, if not a few thousand, working overseas, working in non-aviation jobs, etc., that would LOVE to come work for the US regional airlines, maybe even yours. BUT YOU HAVE TO PAY THEM. And a new contract that pays your entry level pilots a WHOPPING $30 grand a year ain't going to cut it.

May God bless you with a clue, Bryan Bedford.

 

And the rest of the morons down at HQ---JD/WH that standards moron/ Cpilot etc

 

Most likely one of the finest posts ever.

 

I wouldn't say he's clueless....

Insider Selling: Republic Airways Holdings CEO Sells 5,000 Shares of Stock (RJET) | WKRB News

Coincidence with the CHQ announcement?.........hmm