https://www.flightglobal.com/strateg...164457.article

The days of Southwest being a single fleet type are approaching an end.

 

No clue if it happens or not, but not sure I’d be so quick to hitch my career wagon to:

“I’m not promising those things… Everything is on the table at Southwest,” he says.

“Should we chose to fly to Europe… that’s not a mission the 737 Max will do, so we [would] need a different aircraft” – either a widebody or different narrowbody, Jordan says. “It could be that a widebody is just too much, at least for a start.”

 

yeah, there were a lot of “maybes “ in that article.

 

I wouldn’t even classify the quotes as maybes, lol.

 

Based solely upon how long it took them to get one pilot base ETOPS qualified, the idea that they could get any new fleet trained and equipped this decade is laughable.

 

Florida native, born and raised. Beautiful it is not.

I mean, unless you compare it to anywhere in the PA/NJ/NYC area… then yeah you could comparatively call it “beautiful”. A one legged paraplegic could clear that bar with ease however.

 

Winter Park, Baldwin Park, Windermere are amongst some of the nicest in Central Florida. Not to mention some of the springs not too far out.

 

I'm based in MCO. Take United. It will take a while to get based in MCO, but that could also happen fairly quickly if UAL opens a SoFL hub... and if they do, they'll keep the MCO and TPA bases.
At this point, plan on it taking a couple of years to get MCO as an FO and 10 years (at a minimum) as a CA.

No one wants those NK's planes. They've had more than 20 aircraft readied for sale for ... quite a while with no one buying them. They're lemons.
And Kirby's already said that he's not interested in NK's aircraft - too much time and cost to convert vs just buying new ones out of the factory. And he gets better financing terms on new stuff.

I haven't worn a hat at UAL for several years. I'm not in compliance with the FOM, but IDGAS.

Hmm. I had a 4 day with 24:16 pay (20:06 block) @50% PP (11:29:30 premium credit), 1 hr triggered reassignment, 2:10 unaugmented duty, 2:05 sit time, 1:04:40 overtime pay = 40:55:10 total credit.
One day off followed by an out of base 4 day pickup @100% PP.
24:42 pay (20:35 block) @100% PP (24:42 premium credit), 1:33 unaugmented duty = 50:57 total credit.

91:52:10 credit in 9 days. Not a 5:15/day avg, but picking up @100% would do it.
I coasted for most of the rest of the month.

Flying into your day off triggers a cash generation machine - and no, I didn't fly into my days off on either of those two trips.

I'm at ~50% in my seat. I dump my entire schedule during the summer and pick up premium. A lot of that premium's out of base, but I don't make the trip to another base unless it pays well.

Spot on. It takes some work to figure out how to work it, but once you do, it's easy. Of course it depends on BES.

Everything's fluid, but probably at least 2 years for FO and more than 10 (15+ is a safer bet) for CA.

A lot of the CAs bidding MCO are doing it to get the paid move prior to retirement. And FWIW, one can easily make more money as a 737CA than a 787CA.

Flying narrowbodies across the pond is dumb, dumb, dumb. Flights to Europe and Asia don't make their money on passenger tickets; they make their money on the cargo.


Apply to LUV, but take your class date at UAL. You'll end up staying at UAL and won't regret it. Yes, you'll be commuting on the front end of your career, but will be based in MCO eventually. It's worth the pain on the front end.

 

yep-absolutely beautiful. A reason why some of the richest people in the world live there (when they could literally live anywhere in the world).

 

UAL literally flies narrowbodies across the pond on the regular, has done so for quite some time, and plans to expand that operation with the XLR.