3kids

I want some honest answers from some TSA pilots. Why would you guys have extended a CBA and still not address a min day and a trip/duty reg.? The reserve section is still very sub-par. Your hourly rates minus the first 2 year FO pay is still behind AWAC and others 50 seat rate that they turned down. Your 401k is still sub-par. Why in this day and age when many other groups are turning down better proposals would you accept this extension? I just feel you could have done so much better but it seems you caved for the first thing presented which didn't address your big issues. Please only honest and serious answers.

Coneydog

30% of the pilots, including myself, felt the same way you do. Unfortunately pilots are their own damn worst enemy. Fear, selfishness, complacency?? People obviously had their reasons for voting this thing in. Yes, the company laughed us out of the building...with our money in their pockets. As far as min duty and trip rigs, these are supposed to be addressed with PBS negotiations.

Riverside

Serious answers. You're acting like we didn't try. Go back a few pages and read a lot of the pilots on here voiced their opinion about these issues.

3kids

The problem with linking the min day to PBS is that PBS is a massive gain for management. PBS alone will save the company massive amounts of money and will not be an even trade for just a min day. I know that a lot of people on property could not vote due to still being on probation and the 30% that did vote no should be applauded. Just sad to see so much money and quality of life be left on the table just for a quick deal.

GotBanned

This is why I don't post here.

If you would have read my post I got the 7/plane from what we are doing right now currently. Obviously it's not by choice, but that's where we are.

It's math. Will it be tight. Yes..but if you hire what I said based on where we are staffing right now. We will be fine.

Minimally staffed, but we won't be handing back airplanes and people won't be covering our stuff. United and American won't be suing us.

I realize the sky has to always be falling, but if Mesa can fill classes, explain to me how we can't. You cannot honestly look someone in the face and tell them that Mesa is a better stop than here. It's BS.

They also didn't say that we wouldn't have pilots, just that staffing was tight. Reading comprehension is a powerful thing. Just because someone says staffing will be tight during such and such a period, doesn't mean we don't have enough crews.

Math is also a powerful tool. I realize 10/plane is optimally staffed. The reality is you can run on less than that, and this place has done it for years. A couple years ago we were cancelling flights the night prior for crews. This airline has doubled in less than 12 months and we still aren't doing that.

So once again, do the math. To be minimally staffed they really don't have a long long ways to go. Especially if the class sizes have increased.

GotBanned

Where do you work? Because it better be good to criticize a group that didn't take any concessions.

Not really a fan of what we had in that contract, but to criticize this group for not taking a single concession....

From the feedback on line, the groups opinions are far different on PBS. Unless it's really, really good there's no way it passes. The old guys hate it so much that they could make the pot really sweet and it still wouldn't pass.

CBreezy

I looked at what was going on in the industry and over the past few years, listened to the MEC and thought it was a good enough deal for me and my family. Just so you know, the only group to turn down a proposal better than ours is AWAC. Mesa turned down a contract that was barely better than their own bottom of the barrel contract. PSA, PDT, and Envoy all have voted in contracts with massive concessionary language. ASA/XJT is in a never-ending labor battle and GoJet, our sister company, has been negotiating since 2013. So, why did I vote yes? The contract included immediate gains and positioned us to be one of the highest paid 50-seat operators in the country. The rates are second only to AWAC and I'm 100% okay with being second best paid in the industry. It's a short term agreement and, if the projections are correct, we'll be in an even more favorable negotiating environment in 2 year and 3 months when we can file our opener. You can claim that we should all stand up and hold the line, but until places like GoJet and Mesa can negotiate to the average, you'll continue to see flying passed from places like XJT to places like Mesa (they just signed an agreement for ANOTHER 15 airplanes). Until the pilot group costs are more equal across the regional industry, you'll continue to see pilot groups get a great contract then be forced into bankruptcy (Mesaba), close their doors (Comair) or whittled down to nothing (XJT). So, instead of joining GJ, Mesa, Republic and XJT in an unending battle, I took immediate gains across the board with a promise of more gains for PBS. By the way, the company NEEDS PBS to staff this growth. They either have to give us min days, more days off, better scheduling protections/PBS protections, fix the payroll and scheduling issues or they can struggle to staff the operation. They are already giving out 200% premium pay and 200% pay for lineholders with trips that touch holidays...the whole trip. They have money. If PBS doesn't address QOL issues, it'll be a 100% no for me.

Intel33

Everyone is throwing numbers around about pilots per plane and I read TSA has roughly 60 planes and 500 pilots. The Airline Pilot Central "info" page lists roughly 80 "planned" airplanes and firm orders of 50. It also says "goal" is 1200 pilots. Are those numbers accurate?

Can anyone give an update on how many planes and pilots are at each domicle?

CBreezy

I don't even know anymore. When the call was first announced, they said the airplane count when the growth started was 85. The firm orders are for the MRJ which are never coming. As for the goal? No clue.

GotBanned

We still have about 15 deliveries to take. Still a few EP's hanging around I think. So maybe a net gain of another 10-15. I'd guess we settle around 70 ish.

Apparently we have the option for more, but unless we get the staffing up to around that 10/plane like knobcrk said I don't foresee that really happening.

Who knows though. This place is full of surprises. The only definite bit right now is we are still short. We are still taking deliveries. RDU is opening sometime in 2016 after which Denver will see growth. That's about all the group has been told.

The rest is just speculation. I'd still guess time on reserve is darn near nil.