What was said about the new hires?

 

The vacancy bid shows me no longer holding EWR 756 FO, which is my current position. Can this be correct? I can't be displaced or bumped out of my seat on a vacancy bid can I?

 

They always screw up the bid screen initially. Take a look at the min max #'s on the bid release document. They input the min # instead of the max, which will show you not being able to hold your current position.

 

Basically the bid is designed, in theory, to place new hires across virtually all the bases and thus avoid a shuffle later after they are on the property to position the staffing for summer '16 flying.

My guess: the majority of the "unfilled vacancies" in this bid after the dust settles, and thus actually available to new hires in upcoming classes, will largely be the same bases and seats that always go junior.

Personally, I'm not anticipating too many unfilled vacancies in DEN, for example.

 

I actually think some of this is forced on the company by the contract.

Example: let's say they see that 400 guys will retire in the next 12 months. Pilot Planning says "We need to hire 400 pilots."

Company says "We will only hire 400 guys if you have 400 unfilled vacancies."

Hmmm. They are short 20 guys in EWR, 5 in IAH, 6 in ORD, and 9 in DCA. But they are overmanned in DEN, LAX, and SFO.

So, they somehow create vacancies that make no sense operationally, in a move they hope will take some of the overmanning to the undermanned bases.

Of course, this is just a ritual with little effect...onsie-twosies.

Now that Pilot Planning has done all they can do to move pilots without a bump, the company has a choice: a bump, or hire more guys.

Apparently, hiring is cheaper than bumping.

I have read several times in company announcements that hiring can only occur if there are unfilled vacancies.

 

Soooo....are they filling slots in Denver so they can displace them in 2016?

 

I would argue that this is one of the first vacancies that actually makes sense. Backfill Denver instead of more bumps. We need the frequency to staff tk and get all the 20000 plus training event into and out of Denver each month (12k pilots on a 9 month cycle plus transitions). Second, no big 78 bid until after the fence goes away. Eliminates the bumps that happened after the seat grab of 12. Perhaps they're finally starting to undo the garbage decision making that occurred around the sli. That cost us hundreds of millions with no real improvement. Just angst for the workers.

 

And your point is? Are you going somewhere with this? LOL

 

No. You can't .

 

No. They don't intend to bump more Captains from denver (apparently), so they're matching the seat staffing on the f/o side. Thats how I see it anyway. Would not surprise me one bit to see them grow den a bit only because of the costs associated with training and staffing an airline this size from a small hub. We need both frequency and volume into and out of Denver for tk alone. Once the decision makers see it as a cost of doing business, I think Denver will take a more prominent role. As it always was. Bunch of garbage decisions made in the last 5 years. Heck the last 15+...