Letter of Resignation from a Southwest Pilot

81+ recent resignations. Wow, I had no idea things were that bad at SWA. I would not be all too surprised to see a similar situation developing here in the not too distant future if things do not improve here substantially. I honestly don't see how Fedex is going to want to attract top talent for this airline. Top talent is what separates the positive outcome we had in Austin vs. a smoking pile of metal....

You could be right? Southwest has some serious problems with upgrade time that, thus far, we don't see at FX. If hiring stops for all of this year and FX shrinks I could see lots of resignations going forward unless the recession shuts down the whole industry. Last time I looked upgrade time at SW for a decent domicile was close to 15 years.

Just a couple points:

- 82 pilots have left SWA since December of 2021

- upgrade time has recently dropped to 7-8 years for junior domiciles while ATL, PHX, & MCO are still stupid senior.

Did any of these folks talk to an airline pilot over the age of forty before they jumped ship?

Delta will be furloughing within five years. Ink it. Bet you a free steak sandwich at the Kowloon Morton's......

"“There is nothing new in the world except the history you do not know.” - H. Truman

I won't take that bet. I once read "When FedEx catches a cold ACMI carriers catch pneumonia" and we do have a cold. The difference is we are pivoting to meet the challenges (at least I hope we are) and ACMI folks just react. To top it off, I recent article about the autonomous aircraft on the horizon and already in testing. They said it cannot be done in our lifetime but here it is.

here it is?

Automated cargo planes are no more than vaporware at this time.

Interesting how you chose 5 years, as opposed to say the next 2-3 years. 5 years is a long time to plan for in anything, especially the airlines. What you’re really saying is that you are not confident a significant downturn will happen and cause the pax carriers to lay off. You’re probably hoping it does because that will make you feel better about FedEx though.

Even still, 5 years from now could give someone jumping ship to gain some seniority that could shield them from a layoff. And I wonder how many times you’ve either used that quote online or mentioned it to the pilot sitting next to you. Good lord.

All things are possible, even China and the US throwing nukes back and forth. There are swans so black you simply can’t prepare for them. But many legacies are going to each be retiring 6-7 hundred pilots a year for the next ten years. That’s a lot of vacancies annually to decrease the chances of furloughs for anyone hired today.

Just to confirm, did you mean December of '22?

WHAT?

I thought FedEx had the worst contract in the industry in so many areas! Yet virtually no one is leaving. Actions speak louder than words in this industry. People are still leaving all the pax majors to come to FedEx. Are the angry 8 hiding something on these forums that the new hires know is BS. They keep on a coming. Say it ain’t so Joe.