Attrition significantly increasing
 

With the majors only beginning to announce names for classes in Q1/2024

it looks like attrition is only beginning to increase only my opinion the number or furloughs and downgrades hopefully reduce significantly

spirit pilots are due for some good news

irrelevant when your company is going to fold in 4-6 months.

how is it that people think this airline is going to be around when we are losing between 80-110 mil/month?


the airline industry is an oligopoly and they influence the government as far as airlines are concerned.

It’s called hope dude. Not everyone can go anywhere. Some people have all the qualifications, skills and professionalism in the world, yet will never be selected for screening by a legacy carrier.

If things are so bleak with the future of NK, why would the system waste its time on a restructure, when liquidation is imminent?

It’s not really wasting time. It’s just due process that any company is entitled to.

Citadel and Blackrock will find a way to sell what is ever left of Spirit. That’s just the risk of the business.

What has the attrition count been as of late?

not sure but there is a mid Feb Class at United with like 75% NK people. Majority CAs.

Glad to hear they're prioritizing experience over insta presentability.

they know whats up. Every single instructor was visibly pleased when they found out they were teaching a Spirit pilot. We have a pretty solid reputation for knowing the airplane and how to properly fly it 😁

Its part of the game duh.

So just suspicion then? No real logic at hand. Just going on hunch from all these latest liquidations of airlines lately. Got it.

As someone too lazy to send out my stuff right now I think there is more than just “suspicion”, there is a real threat and we are raising another 350 million for after bankruptcy.

Does it work out, does it fail is anyone’s guess but I’m under no illusion the cards are in our favor. I’m comfortable waiting to see what happens and you should be too if you’re playing the same game. If you’re not you should have more in your pocket than “hope”. Just friendly advice.

https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/spirit-airlines-bankruptcy-progresses-350m-equity-rights-offering-and-cancelled-flights

Jan, Feb, March will probably be big months as the Megacies kick off hiring.

I am in the same boat. Cautiously optimistic but not under any delusions.

if we aren’t merged or acquired I don’t see any future. The only thing that gives me hope is that the investors would out any more money into this place might mean they have a workable plan (a buyer)

Agreed. Why would the investors pump 350M into something if the plan is to watch it burn? They took positions based on the thought that it will pay off. The likelihood of a buyer is the best bet closely after emerging from Ch 11. IMO.

Good luck to our brothers and sisters at NK.

My boy.........don't get caught with your pants down to your ankles is all im saying.

A career at Spirit will never even come close to matching a career at a legacy airline. I am glad, though, that there are some that are "too lazy to send out (their) stuff right now". There needs to be someone left at Spirit to turn the lights off when it is all said and done.

This person is mad at the crash pad again. I’m unwilling blame him for lashing out. Commuting takes its toll, even on a troll.

Show your work. If your are at the top of the list and the top of the scale living in base doing the exact trips you want to do, show me where starting over at the bottom makes your life the same or better?

Do you make up the money lost by starting over? Maybe depends on many variables but age would be the biggest.

Do you ever get your schedule back? Most likely not unless you are quite young. And if you do how many years of garbage schedule must you endure to get it back? What is the family dynamic (kids ages) while you and they suffer through your new **** schedule reality?

Remember if you want to try and recoup the money loss quicker then the schedule will take a hit for longer.

Aint nobody trying to do 3+ day trips ever again let alone 5 day trips.

Now if spirit is out of business this is all moot.

And of course if you were starting your career today yes a career at a legacy would most likely be better than one at spirit

Because they bought control and can do things like this

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/01/02/hind...ana-stock.html

Even if spirit eventually ceases operations, there will be a lot of cash flying around beforehand.

Thanks for telling me what is best for me, and my career. I’ll file it with most other opinions I see on here.

It’s going to be about a 5 year break even for me money wise. I’m 2.5 years into legacy world. The scheduling boogeyman needs to go away. I pretty much drop my entire month and pick up what I want now or play premium games.

Are you kidding me, that would be AMAZING but I’m not senior enough. :/

That doesn’t surprise, glad to hear you’re doing well!

do you get weekends and holidays off? What vacations are you holding?

You see when you drop your whole schedule you get weekends and holidays off.

I was off for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I was off for New Year’s, but picked up a two day and two days of holiday pay because my family was with the in laws and I was going to be home by 9am New Year’s day.

Year two vacations were nothing special. 1 in October, 1 in November and the third is this February. We’ll see what year 3 holds, but it should be pretty decent as I’ll be in the 35-38% range in my seat. Btw, the vacations follow you if you change bases, and you keep them if you upgrade. That wasn’t the case when I changed bases as Spirit and they scheduled upgrade over one of my vacations.

It’s not all roses. I won’t tell anyone that. But it seems a no brainer if you have time left and your issues for not jumping are pay and schedule related.

Moving higher in the capital structure has benefits. That's mostly what 'restructuring' means. Does it mean the bets will pay off? No. But for the money managers it's somebody else's money anyway.

Investors, especially hedge funds, sink millions into things because they thing they can 3x, 5x, 10x their investment.

If they loose their money, they say "that sucked" and go to Aspen for the weekend to "decompress"

True.The real point is there is still a chance, if there were none Spirit would already be CH7. No idea how long but it’s still a chance.

I'm in the wrong damn line of work..... 😕

They don’t go to aspen 18 days a month, they kill themselves. Pilots are lazy.

In 2022, this hedge fund manager lost 6B in a month for his investors. Pretty bad bet, you would think nobody would touch him after that.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/melvin-plotkin-gamestop-losses-memestock-11643381321

He "refocused" and launched a new fund.

Current 2024 personal Net Worth ? 400M

https://screenrant.com/dumb-money-gabe-plotkin-what-happened/

enjoy the slopes

If you are 30 correct. But it is definitely not "never" for all of us. I left NK as a single digit captain in base, and with less than a decade left, I will absolutely not get that back. Should I have tried harder to leave 3 years ago? Absolutely, but after trying to get in for 15 years I thought was done with it. At least starting February I won't have to commute for the first time in my career, an 18 hour long call is awesome.

If you have 8 or more years left then you will make more money at DL/AA/UA than you will by staying at NK assuming an upgrade at year 4.

That number changes to 11 years with a 6 year upgrade and 13 years with an 8 year upgrade.

All numbers assume current NK Captain, guarantee pay, assume that NK pay rates do not go down, and no profit sharing is included.

scheudules and vacations are the bigger issue for many.

what schedules? I know guys at legacies under a year that have better schedules than 3 year NK FO’s and we aren’t even to Feb yet.

there indeed is a misconception in ULCC-land that "Big-3 FO's" have a crappy QOL and crappy schedules

Most 2 to 3 year FO's I know at Big-3 are getting what they want off (indeed, possibly by working reserve that month on purpose...but) to include Christmas and Thanksgiving off

Hired at a legacy TODAY will probably not result in the same level of ability to control one’s schedule as someone hired 2-3 years ago. The hiring and growth in 2022-2023 was incredible. So there’s a bit of that to contend with.

spelling Nazi Herc. I usually lose a lot of money in Vegas.

My pants are loose since I started ozempic.

yeah but the Goal is to be a Captain, not a career F/O. A lot of the people debating leaving arent F/Os, they’re senior CAs….

just something to think about. We all should have left in 2021. I left at the tail end of this hiring boom and it cos me 6,000#s at least and could have held CA within 6 months and now who knows how long and when / if I hold it, I’ll be Junior for a long time.

I would argue maybe not, goal should be an intersection of the best combination of money, QOL, and perhaps type of flying that works for you.

Career WB FO's are common enough.


Story of my life. Never got furloughed, but tended to be risk-averse to a fault in making career moves. Finally leaned a little bit over my skis and took a legacy-ish job early in the wave. Way behind some of my peers, but better late than never.

I’m just shy of 2 years at U and have only worked ONE major holiday - my very first Thanksgiving. That’s it. I could also have all weekends off if that is something I truly cared about. Mainly it’s only during FB season or certain times of the year I prioritize it, otherwise I get the overnights and flying I enjoy.

As for vacation? I don’t know. Every base and fleet bids differently. One base/fleet might have more options or weeks available than others etc. no idea. I’ve only bid once. I bid the week I needed in December for a cruise I had already had planned and got that. I randomly was awarded Feb for my 2nd week as I didn’t care what happened after that. Our next years annual vacation bid opens soon.

My awarded schedule for Jan is 19 days off. This is NB Airbus. I’m not a WB FO. I’m roughly 50% total in base. I fly three 4 days this month.