Latest Reserve Status
 

How long have Spirit new hires been sitting reserve before getting a line in recent months? How many flight hours logged can a new hire reasonably anticipate while sitting reserve? I'm specifically interested in MCO. Thanks, all!

Flight hours logged? I’m curious by the meaning of this. Are you looking to build time? Most guys are concerned with how many hours you can credit. 72 is most likely while on reserve unless you can score some MUP(move up pay) or and X/Y trip (200%) on your days off. Lately it seems guys are flying anywhere from 10 hours to over 72 while on reserve per month.

Yep, that was confusing. I'd be commuting to reserve for at least a few months and know I'd rather be flying than sitting in a crash pad. I was curious how much flying would be likely--hours, days or number of trips. I certainly get that reserve min credit is 72.

6-7 months from date of hire to get MCO for those in my class.

Expect min guarantee on reserve. $3200-3600 after taxes.

Those hired a year or two ago spent a month or two on reserve. Now, it's a year at least. Ymmv.

That's really helpful. Thank you.

Check your pm

You'll be one of the very few if not the only pilot commuting to MCO. Just curious why MCO? There are a ton of pilots from all carriers commuting from MCO so it can be difficult jumpseating in and out of there. Not sure where you live and the availability of flights, but I would look into DFW or ORD. Usually a ton of flights in and out and hotels are dirt cheap so you don't necessarily need a crash pad.

I live in Alabama and I'd likely commute to MCO by car until my life circumstances allowed me to physically move there. The drive would be a bit longer than by flying, but would offer significant flexibility.

That’s going to get old fast

If you get McO you will be sitting reserve for quite a while 1+ years depending on growth, movement, etc. If by flight logged hours you mean block hrs it varies widely but rarely ever you will get over 72 credit hours


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Thanks for all of the replies!

I just put an app in and am weighing the pros and cons. The biggest con is likely to be commuting, but I'm committed to working through that. I've got 20 or so direct flights from my area (including 4 from my home town) to DFW every day. That seems as do-able a commute as there could be in all of 121 to me.

Given that every other base is a 2 leg commute minimum, how soon can I expect to be based in DFW? Does the 4-5 year captain upgrade I've read about change at DFW?

Is 8-10 months on reserve about right?

Do you get any input on whether or not you have long or short reserve?

Sorry for the questions that I'm sure have been answered before, but my google results all were about "how to beat Spirits carry-on rules", etc.

It’s hard to say how long you’ll be on reserve for. Now that hiring has picked up and we are going to PBS. It’s even harder to guess. You bid for long or short call. You can look at the reserve availability a few days ahead of time, and what’s in open time to see if you’ll fly or not. I can only speak for Vegas. I’ve always had my trips added to my reserve assessment about 24-36 hrs. ahead of time.

This is not the case for all bases. DTW has an additional dynamic with the presence of the maintenance hangar there. They assign reserves to reposition spare airplanes out of DTW to rescue flights at other stations. I've been called at 3am three times in one week.

hmm, that doesn't sound very fun.

From the June vacancy bid it looks like the most junior DFW FO is a September 18 hire. As for RSV in DFW, I know a couple people with a little over a year with the company and they are RSV.

Dallas was cannibalized to grow MCO and we haven't recovered yet from the loss of a gate, airframes, lines, and pilots. It is supposed to grow back but it's going to take some time.

good thing he was hoping for DFW not DTW..?

There are new captains that have spent 18+ months on reserve, that would likely increase with PBS rules on reserve..

With the fleet growth stopping at @180 ac, sans a new order, you need to be at seniority @1450 or less to upgrade when the last ac is delivered in 2021. There are now @2160 on property.

You bid LC or SC, so seniority.

There is minimal attrition and retirement..

There are a ton of 30 to 40 year old Captains and FO’s. Unless you are in your 20’s it will be hard to see better than say 50% on captain seniority, absent a huge growth in the fleet..

JMO

You didn't list to the Q1 Earnings conference call at all, did you?

I did not listen to the earnings call, what did I miss? I do listen to and read the MEC messages.

Is there something I write that is wildly out of whack?

Yes, very.

There are additional airframes coming that are outside of the now 180 fleet plan. These will maintain our 15% YOY growth until the 'order' airplanes arrive which sounds to be in the 2024-2029 time frame.

Our current fleet plan has grown from 144, to 164, to 174, to 177, and now 180 without a single aircraft order.

The company stated repeatedly that the next aircraft order, and it also sounds like they've already picked the airframe, is coming. Not if, or maybe, or we'd like to. The company said on an investor call that an aircraft order will be soon be announced (Q3). So, unless you think the company is blatantly lying to its investors and to the SEC then it's pretty disingenuous to claim the last Captain has already been hired.

The 15% YOY growth was called out as being 'aggressive' by one analyst. The company said that it isn't and that it's actually a metered growth percentage due to the sheer size that this airline will become. This airline is going to grow and it's going to grow very large.

The call is well worth a listen and should be a requirement before anyone is allowed to post their uneducated opinion about what is and isn't going to happen here.

Yeah, but I still go by the advice my great grandma gave me in November 1903: "you can't fly airplanes that aren't there".

Listening to the earnings call is a good idea, keeping in mind that it is a sales pitch for SAVE. As for opinions expressed on APC, no point in condemning the uneducated ones.

Listen? Nah, I googled it and got a transcript that I could skim for highlights in 5 minutes.

The transcript said the call was 65 minutes long. Save the time.

Sound advice.

Sound advice except for this; If Spirit doesn't grow then that means a catastrophic event eclipsing 9/11 which in case it won't matter which seniority list you're getting furloughed from. Save for that, NK is a very safe bet for growth.

List vs. Listen. I figured it out.

I added at the end of my post it was my opinion. There are all kinds here, the debbie downers, the pragmatists, and the cheerleaders.

The 180 was a direct quote from the fleet plan posted on the company website. If you are planning your future at any airline you can go with the current fleet plan, or an unknown future order based on a given percentage growth based on capacity not total fleet size.

What is said on the calls is not written in stone, and they are careful to state as much.

We know there will be an order. When, where, how many, when will they arrive? I'll wait for the announcement. Until then I'll go with the current fleet plan.

MCO was supposed to be 300 pilots by April, it has 180? Stuff happens.

Where does the 4-5 year upgrade posted before come from? Any numbers to back that up?

Some key words from the call. utilization and gates

When the company increases the utilization rate for crew and aircraft, what does that do for increased fleet size?

When the company can't get the gates it needs for growth, what does that do to orders?

Take note that those two words were mentioned multiple times. How much Q & A was there on new orders?

Another increase to crew and aircraft utilization? Disaster recovery software and rescheduling. The company has both now and will learn to use it effectively.

Opportunity. How did we get to 180 airplanes? Opportunity certainly played a part. Getting the Chinese 320's, the two Mexican 319's, the two WOW 320's, were not planned. The WOW birds won't join the fleet until late fall. At some point the number of currently leased 319's to purchase runs out. This working at the edges, it adds up certainly, but it's not 200 new airplanes worth. It's a bunch of clapped out planes that need increasing maintenance. Which was a subject of the call.

Deferred delivers. Any information on pushing at least one delivery to 2020? Any correlation to the fire at the plant in Germany?

I'm all for growth, and I expect it.

The majority of pilots sitting pretty here with seniority did so by coming here before an order was on the books.

Sometimes you need to take an educated guess and make a move to try and get ahead of the rush.

How many people could have come here pre new contract and didn’t? They said “I’ll wait and see what the new contract is.” Too late by then

People waiting to see if there is a new order before applying will only serve to sling gear of those who were able to make an educated guess on growth and took action.

Absolutely. This thread started asking about reserve. Is it realistic today to tell prospects that they could spend more time on reserve, than new hires in previous years? Or that if they upgrade in the future, based on what we expect for growth, they still may see longer time spent on reserve than in the past as captains? Or that the may see their relative seniority stagnate as junior captains? Or do we tell them there is a boatload planes coming and they will be living large?

Just as an exercise, what do we think would be the number of aircraft on property to be at 50% FO for a new hire today? How many aircraft to be the junior captain? And how many aircraft to be at 50% on the captain list if hired today?

Someone hired the beginning of this year is right around 2000, so at 50% and at current Airbus crewing approximately 16-16.2 crews, they would need a 60-70 plane order to get to the 250 airframes needed to support 4000 pilots. There’s a pretty margin margin of error as additional bases, a different aircraft type, and other factors (light attrition/retirements/senior FO bypassing) could reduce that.

The other factor is the rate of future delivery past 2019, even at 1 a month that’s several years out.