More pressure
 

https://www.airlinepilotforums.com/m...ed-pilots.html

This could very well trickle to Spirit with more current Spirit pilots trying to escape to a legacy getting a call because less mil guys are available. Again, the industry standard shops will be unaffected because they will steal great pilots from places like Spirit unless Spirit suddenly decides they want to stop the bleeding and make this a place that people want to work.

This management group (Certainly not a team) doesn't care about anything other than the next quarter. They will continue to rape & pillage their employees to try and "Increase shareholder value", or just hit whatever number gives them their bonuses.

A forward thinking management TEAM would know that we need a TA YESTERDAY to be able to attract qualified guys to help ensure growth is uninterrupted.

In my opinion, its already too late. Without a T/A today, there just isnt enough time to attract, train and KEEP guys for planned growth.

They know that. It’s why we aren’t ordering more planes. We will be 112 planes by year end. Only 10 coming next year. That’s 8.9% growth. Far cry from the 15-18% they want. We will be staffed enough to stumble through next year and then they’ll consider a serious offer, meanwhile it’s already checkmate for Spirit.

Something to consider is that airframe growth is not the same as capacity growth. We should care about airframes (as it relates to pilots needed), the airline cares about capacity (as it relates to total seats). Their 15-18% is likely capacity not airframe growth. Either way, they need pilots to fly these rigs....

I suspect they’ll announce a new aircraft order contingent on a pilot contract. It’s up to us not to take that bait. Delta management tried it and failed; pilots voted down TA1, airline ordered planes anyways, much better TA2 votes in... It’s Spirit management’s growth plans that require a pilot deal, not us pilots. They need to come to us. End of story.

Dont think this will affect the industry too much. The pilots they are looking at unretiring are folks to fill non-pilot staff billets, freeing the pilots to go back to flying.

The program is voluntary, and these returning retired pilots are not eligible for any flight bonuses or incentives, and I'd wager that most pilots that voluntarily leave the Air Force leave because they're tired of having to deal with non-flying stuff that this program is going to stick them into.

So any retired pilots that are currently working at a major airline are making more money as an airline pilot than they will going back on active duty to fill a non-flying staff position requiring aviation experience, is probably not going to bite at another chance to go back on active duty. But I could be wrong.