UPS 2020 Hiring
 

Well, here it is. The annual hiring thread. 2020 looks to be another good year.

Per today’s Chief pilot email: we have hired a little over 260 so far this year and plan to hire more next year (2020).

The Vacancy bid, which gives a good estimate of more exact future hiring needs, will come out following the system bid that many believed should have been issued today. The big shakeup for this particular system bid is that it creates a new domicile, 747 SDF, and this opens up some bidding restraints, eg. relief from any seat locks, downgrade possibilities, etc. Rumor is SDF 747 will start with 90-120 combined CPT/FO positions. ANC MD closing is almost wrapped up and MD SDF flying is rumored to truly be mostly domestic flying now. The point of all this for you potential new hires is that initial fleet and domicile assignments might be a little non conventional / unpredictable in 2020.

I know Boiler has the future aircraft orders list handy so I’ll let him post that but the gist of it is that we continue to take delivery of 747-800s and 767s thru 2020 and beyond. MD retirement seems to be at least a few years off with most rumors pointing to the 2028 timeframe. Any rumors of acquiring a new fleet have all but disappeared. Mandatory retirements continue to trickle upwards.

The company is continuing to grow resulting in expanding operations on the weekends and a third sort during the weekdays. Thus, more flying overall and more day flying options. Like everywhere else, the company has discovered “the optimizer” and you can guess how the effects to our schedules has been. Contract negotiations formally start in Sept 2020 (??). IMHO, this gig continues to enjoy a favorable forecast for those currently in the job market.

I haven’t kept close tabs on hiring stats for the last couple of years but it seems the majority are either civilians with prior Boeing/Airbus experience (ACMI & foreign carriers) or Air Force on the mil side. For civilians anyway, it’s appears mostly the same as it has been: generally higher flight TT (6-8K), check airman / 121 instructor experience, etc. I recall seeing the average age of new hires was in late 30’s...?

That’s all I got. Please add any pertinent info / corrections as you see fit and try to keep the posts factual. Take any questions and commentary to a separate thread so those looking for info don’t have to read through 100 pages of tangents and troll spam. Thanks in advance and good luck to all potential new guys!

it should be noted that any downgrade possibilities with the new system bid are purely voluntary.

I couldn’t tell if he meant we were going to hire more than 263 in 2020, or just more pilots in general

I was told in my interview in SEP that they were planning to hire 300 next year.

Thanks for the insight. Great Intel. Been swimming now for 4 months and looking forward to getting out of the pool. Whenever that happens..

Twenty-one more growth airframes to be delivered in the next three years.

2020
5 747-8
6 767-300F

2021
6 747-8
2 767-300F

2022
2 747-8

There's also one new 748 and one new 763 to be delivered before the end of 2019, and I *think* we also still have four dry leased 767s to take delivery of.

Current average age of 2019 hires is 42.

Contract negotiations formally begin 1 Sept 2020, current CBA becomes amendable 1 Sept 2021.

That 263 number doesn't jive with the stats on the IPA Membership Committee page, which shows 217 newhires YTD.

Have to wonder if the 46 pilot delta there includes future Nov/Dec hires *and* management pilots...

These are firm, known numbers. FTv3 mentions new fleet rumors all but gone, however, rumors of additional -8’s and 76 pretty strong, and with Boeing somewhat vulnerable right now, they may be interested in selling additional planes.

During the last GMM meeting it sounded like we’d be lucky if we hire just a tad over 200 for the year. 263?! was definitely a surprise.. I’d like to see how they derived that number?

I agree Boiler, it has to include all new managers, the remaining class(es?) for the year and also the pilots who were hired but didn’t make it through training and/or left while on probation.

That many?? Wow, hope you’re right.

50/80 is my prediction for the first 74 SDF bid. ..but I also think there’ll be more than 1 systems bid next year.

I also believe ANC will see some growth, let say 25/40.
Combined for the airline and for the year - 180/225 (that’s IPA, who knows how many über-captains we’ll hire :rolleyes:).

I’m frequently wrong and my sources are tea leaves and coffee beans in my mug.
Also, I saw it on the Internet, so...

https://www.webdevelopersnotes.com/w...e-internet.jpg


Let’s hope your numbers are closer to the truth.