80 Million workforce reduction
 

It looks like the planned 80 million in cost cutting via a reduction in work force has started today

Rumor is A LOT of headquarters staff have been let go,,

definitely no rumor to it - lots of people were let go yesterday and today. Hopefully they’re able to find other jobs soon.

Holy damn. Any idea how many people that translates to? Spirit is already a bare bones operation so this may mean a few remaining people trying to carry a heavy workload.

Maybe I'll need to block additional time for a response when I email crew pay, etc.

Doing it this way, they probably don’t have to pay any kind of severance package saving them millions. If they were to wait until after exiting bankruptcy/merger they’d probably have to pay out. We in bankruptcy, F off and no severance, byeee. Hardcore.

Well sadly, my thoughts exactly. I wondered if there was any “exemption” to wrongful termination or anything like that if done while in bankruptcy. Much easier to say “we were struggling and needing to operate with a barebones operation to help the company with cost savings, so cuts were necessary”. Once out of BK, it would seem to be harder to
make this claim.

You can fire people without cause in FL anytime.

I heard that crew train, crew plan, and crew pay are all being done away with.

If it's even true, those would have to be replaced with another type of support system.

Hilarious. What could possibly go wrong?

this stuff will all be outsourced

sim sessions with be a hodge-podge of 75 year old retired Airbus pilots from 10 different airlines, all earning $75k to "make a difference using your valued experience"

we know the type. they start every sim session with "well, lets see if today is any better than yesterday"

Assuming at-will employment, the employer can always eliminate jobs, BK or making profits hand-over-fist. No practical claim by ex-employees if their job is eliminated.

If an employee is fired, and their job is filled by someone else, then you'd need some reasonable basis, progressive discipline, PIP, etc

But (legit) layoffs don't require any justification at all, impersonal business decision.

When I did fortune 500 white collar, we *always* had a layoff list (in priority order) ready to go because the C-suite might give middle managers 24 hours to decide who to keep and who to cut. The jobs themselves would often get completely redefined to match up with the folks who kept their jobs, and the work that had to get done.

So the theory is that layoffs are done by job/position, the reality is that it still comes down to personalities in many cases. Sometimes they just shutter a whole division or something like that, then you know it's fair because everybody got canned.

what does that tell you? If you aren’t actively trying to get out…you prolly should. I knew a lot of those folks in training, all fantastic people. Sad ito see it’s going down this way. Good luck to all my former NK peeps.

When do Christie and Bendo get the axe? They’re the problem.

When they lock the doors behind them for the final time congratulating themselves on trying their best against all odds to save it.

None of that is true.

Is now the right time to buy a couple Gs worth of SAVEQ?

If there's truth to that, the other type of support system would probably be an acquiring airline's training dept. Presumably an airbus training dept.

I'd be fairly surprised if it were, but it's just what I heard from someone who got fired, who heard it from someone else.

Anyone know if SF, the old director of pilot hiring, is still at Spirit?

Is Ted's bonus safe? That's all that really matters in these trying times.

Escorted out by armed security
 

Hoping all the people that were escorted off the property today after being laid off find a new job soon. Sad deal. Hope all the pilots looking for their forever home find it before the music stops.

I can’t wait to call crew scheduling and get someone from India.

Automation my boy. No need for the humans in India. You been on reserve lately? A text bot assigns that trip now. All airlines converted to computer based systems recurrent training years ago, it’s a matter of time that 1 day in person class will be too. I’d be surprised though, if they outsourced sim instruction; too many problems. Bob Ford and Bob Harrison are just starting. Been to a store lately? Self checkout has been around for a few years. 10 checkout machines with surveillance, and 1 human. You never thought this wouldn’t be implemented at the airport? Spirit isn’t throwing noodles at the wall to see what sticks. Anything aviation is slow to modernize, but it eventually does. Employees are an unknown quantity, computers aren’t. You’re witnessing in real time Spirit using bankruptcy, with the help of investors; to take that leap. Shedding debt, and shedding ‘replaceable’ employees in just a few months; all made easier with chapter 11. Other airline C suites are jealous. Never let a crisis go to waste.

I mean…… can’t get any worse from what I remembered. When you talked you heard an echo while the Scheduler's Kids were screaming in the background…….

Oldie, but goodie:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6C8Z9aBa2Y

I was thinking of this same video! lmao classic

lol I was thinking the same thing… very curious to know. She made a lot of pilots squirm….

Alaska just brought back the in-person day, several good reasons for that. There are things which CBT's can't cover, especially for employees like us who may talk to their immediate boss once every ten years, if you pass him in the hallway.

That actually has been done, by regionals. Yes there were problems. Involving any non-company pilot in training will virtually ensure problems.


Interesting recent article in one of the business rags (WSJ?)... The self-checkout fad is actually getting rolled back by a lot of stores.

1. Shrinkage increases by 4-5%, due either to errors or theft.
2. Customer experience is often degraded. If I'm just getting a bag of chips, I'll do self checkout. But a whole cart? Not a chance, especially since I usually get beer or wine. It's very frustrating for the customer when the things malfunction and you have to get help, especially dealing with produce.
3. Machines are expensive to begin with, and inevitably have higher mx costs than originally envisioned (real world =/= design lab).

Self-service boarding pass kiosks are actually mostly fine, since it's a single transaction it doesn't waste a lot of your time when it malfunctions. They do malfunction, we use them, and for some reason they're too stupid to know when they're out of paper, so you can finish the process, the printer makes a whirring noise, but nothing comes out.

I'm going to speculate that Ch.11 is not the time to rush out a bunch of innovative, expensive automation. Too much other stuff going on for management, and the judge (and likely creditors) would have to approve significant outlays.

All flight instruction has to be done by a Spirit seniority list pilot.

Is that normal for most airlines?

I know Jetblue has non seniority list instructors but not sure about the legacies

​​​​​​Delta uses a lot of non seniority instructors a lot of them never even flew the line for Delta at all. Lots of retired US Airways and Air Tran guys. And retired in house pilots as well.

Varies by contract. Not normal or abnormal

SWA is outside or retired guys. We have instructors from all walks of life.

I know Jyri tried to threaten the check airman group years back over this, he wanted to bring in a bunch of Riddle kids and 78 year old retired pilots to come and do sims, it was shot down. I would say it isnt normal for airlines to have in their CBAs that only seniority list pilots can do flight training. It is a great benefit to all of us that those checking and training us are the same ones flying on the line.

You can see from above that SWA, UAL and DAL all use non seniority list pilots to do flight training. Again, its a benefit to us.

UAL is seniority list pilots for everything but systems

Not sure about other airlines, but at UAL there is a very clear line in the sand of who does what in the training center. For us that means that ground school/systems classroom training and Fixed Base Trainers that are used for ground procedures such as engine starting and the like can be done by non-seniority list instructors.

All full flight sims and training/checking done in those are done by seniority list pilots. If you are being trained/checked on any flight procedure it is being done by a current UA pilot. So, this translates into over 1000 pilots working at our training center in Denver.

Having seniority list instructors is both better for the training and better for the pilot group in the job security world!

Training Center? I thought you spelled it with a K at UAL, Training Kenter (TK).

Training Kingdom..How Delta didn’t snag this one first is beyond me(sarcasm)

Keeping that nugget in C2018 took forever to TA precisely because of Jyrinal and the like. They wanted everything outsourced like most airlines. The fact that some here don't realize it's contractual makes me wonder what else they don't know... 🤔😕