Source?

Filler

A dream he had last night

piedmont can’t attract new hires to staff the operation moving forward. Envoy is still attracting plenty of new hires with a deep cadet program. Also easier to recruit when you can show shiny pictures of 175’s.

Also Envoy has way better training capacity and programs including qualified upgrade training vs a full initial course.

AAG knows the quickest fix to piedmont’s staffing issues are to merge them into Envoy.

They would’ve done it long ago....

lets see what april and may bring before we start saying we're unable to staff.

One never knows if Frontier will end up being merged/acquired. A senior Frontier pilot could end up slotted high up in a legacy list.

Seeing the trouble with the 737 Max, somebody might bypass the flow at Airbus and snap up an airline with a lot of Airbus metal. It's that easy.

I think the mindset has shifted from whipsaw, now staff later, to staff now, whipsaw later.

In my humble opinion, the bean counters have a number. Obviously piedmont flight ops is costing AAG a fortune for 50 seat lift. Having 3 separate pilot groups to whipsaw is very attractive when the market will change again. And it will. Having 3 separate wo pilot groups, the lowest paid in the industry now, to pit flying against the other fee for departure companies is a huge asset. As the pilot pipe line has ramped and the economy slows in a few years, there will be a glut of entry level pilots again. Will 500 to 1000 hours multi be the norm before an interview? Im not smart enough for that. Variables include, pilot retirements, contraction, bankruptcies, fuel costs, political instabilities, terrorism/war.

Rest assured, at least I hope, american has some smart finance people that have several models and simulations already performed to predict and demonstrate the future, along with piedmont, psa and envoy.

Than again a bad lunch meeting in dfw fueled with scotch could change our destiny in a second.

April through December is going to crazy here... I'm prepared for the worst and hoping for the best... I got my go bag and sack of cash under the bed ready to gtfo at a moments notice.

I’ve only done a quick review of the last 8 pages or so... what’s going on with piedmont? Can someone post a quick summary?

Thanks!

PDT sucks. F9 sucks less. F9 opened a PHL base. PDT pilots don't suck, so many quickly realized they'll make more career money switching to F9 now than waiting five to ten years to flow to AA.