Class Cancelled?
 

I just heard from a friend that an entire class got cancelled. Was it due to SIM unavailability, or something else? Just curious.

I was supposed to be in the February 22 class, they advised me they were doing anything until May and now they want me to go to GoJet. Not sure what is going on? Is Trans States going to be pushed aside?

The FO trainees were told they are being furloughed due to lack of captains in the upgrade class. GoJet came in and told all of them they have a class starting tomorrow and they were all offered a job.

2020... And it begins.

A class was cancelled and offered either resignation, personal leave for months with hope of a class, or termination. They say there are too many first officers on property and too much training backlog. They also are attempting to negotiate concessions in the contract in part because they are “so well staffed.” Please pass this around, trans states holdings doesn’t want you and doesn’t want to give its employees a fair contract.

Spoke with TSA HR today. All classes are cancelled through May and not sure when the next ones will be due to extreme overstaffing of FO's. They are trying to push everyone to GoJet, which has a fantastic bonus. My only issue is they don't have a DEN base, which is why I really wanted TSA. Not sure what I'm going to do next. Not happy.

Trans States and Go Jet equal bottom feeders aka scum bag airlines. Do some research on their long history and why they earned such a well deserved status. Why in this day and age of you can literally get any regional job you want if you have 1500 hours and a heart beat would anyone go to work for them, honest question? Just to be clear my remarks are meant for management and not any line pilots or other employees.

they OFFERED termination??!

Did anyone take their generous offer to be fired?

The problem with training is a lack of instructors. They don't treat instructors very well and the only guys interested are the ones who live in STL. They have been after a concessionary contract for the last year and that had nothing to do with staffing although management has been talking that up recently. Keep in mind "so well staffed" for TSA is normal staffing for everyone else. Lots of trips in open time. No premium yet for FOs, but its coming. Look for the Junior manning to start in April.

It was great for a while when KS took over. But once he left, the place started going downhill and is headed back to where it was before KS got here.

welcome to the airlines. This is just the first of many times you won’t be happy. Every time you get furloughed, it gets harder to come back with a smile

CommutAir
 

If you are leaving and looking for options, consider CommutAir. PM if you want info.

I don’t remember them furloughing classes even when they lost the American flying. An event which which has been erased from Wikipedia.

Any of you want to come to gojet and split the referral, PM

Interesting times. I've second-hand heard of at least one brand new guy with only a couple hundred hours 121 getting an LCC interview in the last week. I've also personally talked to several FOs with more than 500 hours that aren't planning to upgrade and are putting together apps for LCCs or ACMIs. I'd have expected an announcement that TSH management had upped the bonus for DECs and/or were allowing CA upgrades to keep their new hire bonuses - which they've done on a case by case basis in the past. Several of those high time FOs implied and one outright said it'd be a harder choice if they were able to keep their bonuses after they upgrade. Of course this all stuff with canx classes seems to have come to a head very quickly, so that may still be coming. Hopefully they do that - I'm reasonably happy here and would like to stay put until I get an offer to go to the career destination.

But so far silence, other than a quick memo addressing what's already happened. One could say that it appears that TSH is shifting human capital to GoJet. But I'm of the persuasion that they're just trying to stop the bleeding - if this is all related to CA's getting sponged off faster than they can be made, that's a problem that should be coming to GoJet in short order, too, and pretty much any US regional that doesn't have a robust and desirable career path program with AA, UA, or DAL. I can't imagine the mighty 145 type is much more sought after than CL-65 or that there's any sort of fundamental difference between GoJet and TSA pilots that's exacerbated all this *only* for TSA. And while canx new hire classes solves an immediate problem with overstaffing of FOs and seeing them leave for ACMIs and LCCs since they aren't flying, it creates an existential threat to the airline down the road with "oh crap, no one has 1000hrs 121 for upgrade".

Maybe rickair7777 will bless us with his prognostications, but I'm getting the feeling this time is different just because we've never seen labor supply and demand so far out of whack in this direction.

This is absolutely correct. A year from now the same group of geniuses will be scratching their heads as to why their is a shortage of F/O’s to fly their airplanes.

Bonus Repayment
 

Does anyone know where this wording is in the onboarding documents? I can't remember seeing it, but I'm assuming that it is in there somewhere regarding if/how/when one repays this bonus $$ if they used it upfront for transition training.

To me it’s amazing what a group of idiots can do to an airline. The senior management at TSA is stuck in the past. By all appearances it would seem that they have not made any well thought out moves to adapt to the current market. As a former TSA pilot I’ll chip in my $.02.

When TSA has KS, they had major growth, great morale, and direction. Unfortunately we had lost him to better opportunities. Maybe it was because his higher ups were problematic, maybe he simply found something better. Either way, he left. Wasn’t long before things began to unravel. For instance, junior manning, contract violations, straight up lies from scheduling. Inhuman treatment of not just the pilots but FAs and MX (yes MX wasn’t directly under KS but it shows what senior leadership is valuing). So guess what happened, lots of pilots leaving. Mostly FOs at the time if I recall correctly. Major shortages on FOs and more junior manning. A real vicious cycle.

Now it appears as though all the CAs have pulled chute, myself included. So what lessons can we draw. First I believe that TSA needs a KS type person in senior leadership. Basically someone to tell the brass to go eff themselves when appropriate. This also shows that TSA does not have a high caliber person at the helm. This is critical. The senior leadership has only $$$$ in focus. They have absolutely no desire to run a company. Just to set it and forget it. That does not work now.

I sucks to see what is becoming of TSA. There really are some A+ crew members there. I so really hope they find their parachute that works for them and their families.

I think that TSA is just sort of the canary in the coal mine. Maybe managed just a little more poorly than some of the others, but EVERYONE at the regional level is starting to bleed CAs and even senior FOs to the majors, and many of the ones that go first are the training cadre. This is something that is going to have to be ACTIVELY managed by someone with a little foresight and knowledge of queuing theory, otherwise you are going to wind up with CA/FO mismatches even if your total numbers hold up. And this is an issue that is not even amenable to just throwing money at it, not if seniority is going to be honored.

And this is going to become more - not less - of a problem for the next five years or so. Those regionals who don’t manage it well are going under.

any precedent?
 

I am still 700hrs short of ATP mins, and I know very little about the airlines.

Anybody with knowledge see any similarities here between TSA and Great Lakes?

Great Lakes blamed the pilot shortage, but I think the real story was pi$$ poor management led every FO and CA to be actively looking for better jobs.

I ask because Go Jet and TSA fit my 2 to 3 year plan for personal / family reasons.

Very nice to offer termination as mentioned. Hopefully word gets out systemwide and nobody
applies to TSA ever again.

I have very serious doubts they offered termination. And it's that guys first post. It just does not make any sense.

Upside, you might get unemployment bennies?

Downside, you're blacklisted from 121 majors for getting fired.

Either way, its heart warming to see some of the regionals led by predatory managers start to implode. Especially after what happened to the major pilots after 9-11. Hopefully the pilot shortage continues to rapidly intensify.
Its time for the planes and pilots to be forced back in house.

Doesn't take much prognostication to read the retirement graphs, it's only getting better (for us, not management) over the next few years.

We've seen LCC's hire experienced regional FO's prior to upgrade (1000-2000 hours 121) for a few years now.

Now it looks like they're starting to use the regionals as 121 training filters... pass training, consolidate and you're eligible for consideration. Safer training bet than a CFI.

Next step will be LCC's hiring CFI's. That's going to create a a big dilemma for noobs... take an LCC job now, or go enjoy less pay and QOL at a regional in hopes of quick upgrade and a Legacy job?

Worth mentioning the military is tapped out as far as surging airline candidates... only output there will be the steady state of folks at the 10, 20, 24 and 30 year gates. Everybody mil and ex-mil who was waiting in the wings with the option to do airlines is already doing it, or just not interested.

I largely agree with you. Especially the canary in the mine. However strong regionals are miles ahead of TSA and holdings. Previous poor business dealings are catch-up with Hulas carriers. When you look at largely successful regionals (Skywest, envoy, and republic these days) and then you compare that to holdings, you see night and day differences. True that there is a difference between private and public companies, but the way that good companies manage and handle resources (and Human Resources) is where I see the trouble. Specifically TSA does not value its pilot group. That showed when I was there and it shows now. For example- look to the contract negotiations. In this market? It’s a joke. But I no longer have a dog in that fight. I wish every crew member under TSA leadership and holdings the best.

So again I say the original poster of this claim must be wrong. Why would anyone in the right mind accept being blacklisted from every 121 just to get a tiny check each month. It makes no sense. And it does not fit with what my 2 friends who were in the February class are telling me.

If you didnt sign a promissary note... you don't have to pay anything back.

Yep the contract situation demonstrates how much trouble we are in. The main reason why they are canceling classes is an inability to get people through training in a reasonable time. This is due to a lack of instructors and check airmen. The training department is a mess. They have a hard time getting instructors and are begging for them all the time. There is no language in the CBA that covers instructors so the company can run roughshod over them. When our negotiators tried to get language in the new contract to cover instructors it was denied because staffing is fine and we don't need it. Our instructors, LCAs, and APDs are the lowest paid in the industry by far. Several instructors have been so fed up they have gone back to flying the line. A lot of the helo guys they hired are getting close to 1000 hours 121 and are bouncing to better jobs rather than upgrade. All these new FOs talking about being "fat" on FOs don't realize we are in winter schedules now. There is plenty of open time right now for pickup. Just wait until April and May get here and bring the summer schedules and higher utilization on the aircraft. We'll be critically staffed on FOs and CAs by May. Just wait. We'll be back to Junior Manning FOs like crazy and 200% for FOs very soon.

Its deja vu all over again at TSA.

OP was accurate. Union just published the text of the letter that everyone in the January class received via email. Things are getting weird...

Piedmont is filling late February and March classes. PM me for details.

Friends don’t let friends train at the TWA HQ
 

Friendly message from H K

TWA or TSA? Just about had a heart attack when I saw your title. 😀

Anybody hear anything new from TSA on when they are going to get FO's back in class?

Nothing official but supposedly they’ll resume FO classes around May.

I agree with everything you said, except I think soon, there will be little or no difference between the LCCs and the Legacies in the minds of pilots. Except for those that just HAVE to fly a wide body, If you want pay and QOL, the LCCs offer everything (and sometimes more, depending on each individual's situation) than the Legacies.

As a soon-to-be CFI, I sure hope you’re right about this. In discussing this subject with a senior UA captain, she speculated even some majors may consider this over the next 10 years. Time will tell.

Assuming there is a glut of FOs approaching 1000 121 and upgrading accordingly won't there be a shortage of FOs in the near future? What then, does that say about cancelling class? And since the pipeline will have dried up haven't they backed themselves into the corner of having the pay even higher bonuses than they already were?

The pilot shortage is going to do wild things to staffing at all levels. These companies are gonna have to figure this stuff out quick.

Why does the pop up banner on this page say “Immediate Class Dates”? Didn’t they just cancel all the classes?