72/mo times 12 months is the last I’ve heard. That would be 862 IIRC .

Having said that the issues that could affect that number one way or another are the difficulties hiring other employees, winter resurgences of COVID and/or COVID restrictions, economic growth or recession, loss of some junior pilots to other majors - especially first year guys due to the pi$$-poor year one and training pay, and the fact that 862 people are more than the training department has ever turned out annually since…well, EVER really.

 

How much of that will be growth and how much will be to cover attrition? Had a person that I was working with doing interview prep for United say that when talking with the interviewers, they said that they had over a dozen from Spirit interviewing at United last week.

Is Spirit going to bleed pilots like the regionals are going to?

 

They are leaving in droves, we can barely crew flights day to day, zero reserves, management being called out to fly, pilots weeping in the crew room…

No.

 

Growth mostly. I’m sure some pilot loss is cooked into that, but almost all of those bodies will be needed to man the incoming airframes.

 

With United, American, Delta, FedEx, and UPS all competing for the best pilots, do you think Spirit will really be able to fill classes? Im guessing low time regional FOs with no degrees and a handful of check ride failures. But beyond that, how many will choose Spirit over all of the others that are hiring?

 

Don’t forget ones with a gimp legs, the ones covered in tattoos, and of course those with few domestic battery/dui charges. There’s a reason why Spirit pilot wives don’t need to be told twice…

I’m sure you are genuinely concerned about NK staffing, but don’t worry, there’s always someone to scrape off the bottom of the barrel.

 

We’re scouring SODA files now for potential candidates from yet untapped “lame and halt” pile.

I’m sure it hasn’t occurred to you yet, but low time pilots from both seats and all walks of life, warts and all, will be hired everywhere once the regional supply of Chuck Yeager’s biomechanically modified super progeny run out.

Spirit will not have trouble filling classes. They’ll see if the bottom of the barrel is in fact the bottom
or if it can be removed before they give in and raise wages, but they will
end up raising wages. Pilots from all backgrounds will apply. Many because it is a good fit for them, and many just hoping to land the first job available while shopping other opportunities. Pilots jumping ship from one legacy or major freight operator to another will be as common as poorly veiled troll attempts on this forum.

There’s going to be churn at the bottom. Guess what? Spirit is counting on that. First and second year FO’s are relatively cheap compared to 8 year CA’s. They expect some to leave. There are better salaries to be made humping 5 legs a day for Herb’s old airline or comparing academy rings and rectally inserted posture improvers for the admiralty club, but that won’t appeal to everyone. The contract here is actually quite good, and that’s apparent anytime I jumpseat and am asked some questions about how we operate.

Im here for the duration and hope they really get this thing settled and figured out. The concept works. If I were a a 20-30 something junior FO with options I might consider moving on. That’s not everyone. I’m here and pretty happy with the decision. More than a few who hire on will come to that same conclusion.

Look for NK to re-evaluate training and first year pay if they continue to shed 40 pilots a month. Maybe even pre negotiations. If that attrition is an outlier then it will be addressed in negotiations.

I hope that wasn’t unclear.

 

Mostly just those that value QOL and NK base locations over more money and wide body flying if they have multiple CJOs, at least until they fix first year/training pay. But most that do get hired are going to be really reluctant to leave once they are a line holder which at current hiring rates will happen pretty quickly. But there will always be a few that for a variety of reasons seek other opportunities.

 

I’m dying. Top notch humor.

 

No, unless you are part of the FOI program but that has been going on for a while now. 1500 hours is just a number. Guess who else has a 1500 hiring min? United, but nobody is talking about that. Guess how many 1500 CFIs have they hired?