Welp, if they thought attrition was already bad... As other airlines approach historically favorable contracts, our group gets a swift kick to the groin. If all is fair in love and war and this is just business, fine, but attrition is just business too. Good luck to them this summer.

 

They're cutting massive numbers of pilots in a base where there's TWO legacy airlines to which those pilots can bail.

It's a bold strategy, Cotton. Let's see if it pays off for them.

Anyone in the bottom seniority of ORD should be applying to United and American right now.

I agree the summer will be probably be a disaster. Maybe we'll get lucky and I'll be wrong.

 

guess what , people junior in ORD were already applying to those airlines. Not news.

And why would this summer be any worse or better than any other . The entire Us airline system is in for a busy summer. Having 900 pilots in south Florida, most of which love
some x/y gravy will help them recover from bad weather days. Instead of having pilots almost useless too you sitting in ORD and DTW when south Florida weather rolls thru you’ll have even
More to help recovery. That’s a win for the company. And a point of fact AA (MIA) WN (MCO, FLL) JetBlue (MCO, FLL) all have to deal with the same weather .. I think this entire rebalance gives them more ammunition to deal with the summer headaches ..

Side note.. MIA opened What ? 8 months ago? And we already fly 30 flights a day .. how many have we added in ORD , DTW, DFW recently ? I think DFW-PNS is the only new city from Dallas in many years. Betting Miami has added more net revenue than any of the other non Florida cities in a quicker time. If you don’t focus on where the business is .. it’s just a dereliction of duty.

 

I hope to cash in with this summer meltdown. Their failure will fatten our wallets again.

 

It worries me to some extent all this guys complaining about the redistribution of the bases.... Nowhere did they said "there wont be meltdowns." The purpose is to be able to recover smoothly (or less messy) ... I hope all of you b...ing about it dont read the airplane's manual with the same emotions....

 

Are the flight attendants getting displaced too?

 

I would assume so, unless they’re extremely short staffed there. FAs probably just have different notification procedures in their contract.

 

Not sure. But I cant imagine there would be. They are not going to move or commute to another base and with the turnover, seems easier to just stop hiring for those bases and attrition will fix the issue in a few months.

 

I agree with 90% of what has been said here. There’s no way anyone of us will get through this career without some kind of life changing decision that we have zero say in. And management does have a plan. And it is more often than not the correct decision. But one does have to question the strategy of concentrating all your pilot staffing in FL and ATL. And when you consider that the airline you’re about to merge w has about half their pilots now based in between ATL and MIA, what is the long game here? Yeah, people like to travel to FL, but they all come from somewhere else to get there. And you can’t simply end and begin every trip FL. That is clearly where the money is and they see that. And makes sense for the most part.

But I think this is where the attrition issue comes in. They know the money is in FL. But obviously they need to get people down there from somewhere else. And when you start to run short on staffing, decisions have to be made. But if you have to decide between staffing a base where the majority of flying is vs a big market where you have solid numbers but not on the same level you see in FL, then clearly you will move the flying to more profitable bases. It’s a business decision. Perhaps not a good one long term, but it looks like the best one at the moment.

So in short, I don’t think the company wants this displacement bid. But I think they see this as the the most prudent thing to do at the moment. We all know what the real solution is, and that is a new contract that will retain pilots. They know that too. But w the merger there will be a JCBA. And I hope this motivates them and gives us the leverage we need to get the contract that us and management both need.

Full disclosure … I’m an 8 year F9 guy based in ORD until May. I was about to update my apps until the merger was announced. Then I thought there was carrot out there, but as I get closer it’s starting to look more like a turd. It might be time to apply at United after all.

 

funny everybody on here gets mad and has poked fun of Spirit about our meltdowns. So Spirit decided to make some real change. Now everybody is mad that they tried to do something about it.

careful what you wish for...