Southwest Hiring Freeze?
#43
Layover Master
Joined APC: Jan 2013
Position: Seated
Posts: 4,309
#44
New Hire
Joined APC: Jan 2016
Posts: 8
#45
weekends off? Nope...
Joined APC: Apr 2014
Posts: 1,917
Reference the company memo dated June 5, 2018, Re: Refining our Hiring and Staffing Plan sent out by their SVP-Flight Operations
#46
On Reserve
Joined APC: May 2007
Posts: 15
Exactly. We are still running classes through at least September and have committed to the July round of interviews with job offers which will fill another month or two of classes.
If anyone with a bit of sense in their head looks at our numbers right now personnel wise, you can see that we are heavy on the FO side and lagging a bit on the captain side. If there is any slowing in hiring, we will still be around 800 for the year, which is still above the original target number. The fact that we have tons of reserves sitting during the summer is atypical and cannot be lost on the bean counters. Whatever we are hiring for is coming, I suspect in the same slow, unannounced way that we have grown for the last few years.
Zero chance there is a merger/acquisition on the horizon. Anyone who wants to put some money on that can send me a PM. If airline stock prices start to slide in a major way, then maybe....but not now.
If anyone with a bit of sense in their head looks at our numbers right now personnel wise, you can see that we are heavy on the FO side and lagging a bit on the captain side. If there is any slowing in hiring, we will still be around 800 for the year, which is still above the original target number. The fact that we have tons of reserves sitting during the summer is atypical and cannot be lost on the bean counters. Whatever we are hiring for is coming, I suspect in the same slow, unannounced way that we have grown for the last few years.
Zero chance there is a merger/acquisition on the horizon. Anyone who wants to put some money on that can send me a PM. If airline stock prices start to slide in a major way, then maybe....but not now.
^^^This is pretty spot on. When I went for FO leadership in Jan and they said this was going to happen at the tail end of the year for various reasons. I recently went back to Dallas and this was reiterated. They are worrying about ETOPS right now, and will have 2019 CQT validation to focus on shortly. Being fat on reserves/booking down/gas/economy concerns all give reason for a short pause. Now if this goes to months and months, I might start getting worried.
#48
weekends off? Nope...
Joined APC: Apr 2014
Posts: 1,917
#49
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Apr 2013
Posts: 3,374
M&A absolutely ain’t gonna happen. It would be way too expensive and would be foolish both in economics and capacity. I know pilots love to talk about it, but this just is not the time or the place for such an event.
DOJ aside, look at Alaska right now if you want to see what happens when you pay way too much for an airline (I truly believe Alaska did this as a survival tactic for various reasons) and then all of the sudden the “synergies” don’t show up when you thought they would.
Now cast that in the super conservative, low cost mold that the SWA BOD has made all of their decisions over the last few decades. All of their acquisitions have been either fringe players, on the cheap, or both.
Next downturn I would expect it. Right now, no way.
DOJ aside, look at Alaska right now if you want to see what happens when you pay way too much for an airline (I truly believe Alaska did this as a survival tactic for various reasons) and then all of the sudden the “synergies” don’t show up when you thought they would.
Now cast that in the super conservative, low cost mold that the SWA BOD has made all of their decisions over the last few decades. All of their acquisitions have been either fringe players, on the cheap, or both.
Next downturn I would expect it. Right now, no way.
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