Skywest is not yet "struggling to find people". Could it happen this next year? Sure it could and I hope it does. Best that we could ask for is Skywest beginning to have trouble hiring right before contract negotiations.

 

Even better!

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In your comparisons it was obvious that you were implying that you want Skywest to have things that other places have while knocking the new improvements as not good enough. I deduced that you wanted those things because you believe they are better than what you have now (because why would you want something that's not better? Right?)

 

I didn't suggest that the wash out rate is that high... just that we didn't hire 80-100 a month. Check the seniority list for an accurate picture.

It is still a pretty good clip at which we are hiring. Just not as steep as some people want us to make believe. At the end of the day it doesn't matter if people wash out or leave after 3 months once they have checked the 121 box. You really want to know who is still here after year 1 to get a reliable picture of our talent acquisition potential. The rest is just friction that taxes the system.

 

I'm all for free money, just no more for new-hires because that comes at the expense of all the rest of us who have committed years of our lives to this company.

Across-the-board raises of any sort are of course great.

I'm not enthused about retention bonuses, keep in mind that pilot pay is mostly a zero-sum game, that is any compensation to any part of the group comes at the expense of the rest of the group.

What bonuses allow the company to do is to redirect compensation to certain pilots SO AS TO BENEFIT THE COMPANY. This is done AT THE EXPENSE OF OTHER PILOTS.

Retention bonuses, assuming you have to obligate to work for a period of time, have two issues...

1. An upwardly mobile pilot really cannot lock himself into place. What if DAL calls? So he won't take the bonus. The people who will take the bonuses are generally folks who were staying anyway so two pilots doing the same job are getting different pay with no real benefit to the company.

2. No regional can offer bonuses which would come anywhere near the lifetime compensation of a major airline pilot. So retention bonuses will ultimately not work anyway.

I'd rather just have the entire pay scale raised across the board.

You cannot lose sight of the fact that regional pilot pay is zero-sum...they're only giving us X amount of money as a group so think carefully about how it's allocated.

 

^^^^^^^^^^^ right on

 

Rickair is absolutely correct. There is no amount of bonus that will keep someone from taking a job with Delta or United. SW knows this (why do you think the pilot bonus is not pro-rated?) and you will not get anything here without giving something up. The fact that both of these were just given to the pilot group should tell you either a) it is a zero sum for the company and doesn't cost a dime and/or b) it only benefits the company in some direct/indirect way. I'd be careful about claiming any benefit to the pilot group or SGU will come back on the next round of negotiations and demand something in return!

With new hires, it doesn't really matter how much they hire, there is only so much that the training department can do. There are some military pilots that are not even making it to IOE before they are hired by a legacy. On top of that, there was just someone a couple pages back saying that they haven't flown since getting off IOE. The game has changed and like always, SGU is slow to react. LCA's will continue to get hired away which will plug the training pipeline even more. I think you will know that the proverbial poop has truly hit the fan when SGU starts to work with the pilot group vs openly antagonizing them every chance they get. When reserve re-write, working with SAPA or other pilot wins (like parking allotment or commuter hotels) start to occur, you will know that SGU has finally seen the writing on the wall and being proactive at maintaining their status as the top regional.

Of course, there are always those that either have a sweet gig in the training department or other connections that will argue about how bad other places have it. I just don't understand why you wouldn't want the best for the pilot GROUP, even if it doesn't impact you personally. This of course does not apply to new hire bonuses. This cost should fall on SGU management and management only. The pilot group should not give anything up to help keep people coming in the door.

 

Would it be possible to sit reserve right out of training at either: kslc kfat kpdx or kden ? Where are all the new hires going ?

 

Maybe Fresno on the CRJ. SLC shorty after. Portland on the ERJ, maybe. Denver, no.

 

They have not had close to those numbers in a while. Attrition is even starting to out pace hiring as of last month.