C5Quest

So not even a thanks or no thanks ? That's kind of crappy. We received the emails in March also about the delay. Maybe a different email but our class all got phone calls.

Flying101

Nada man! It would def be the longest "thanks but no thanks" if they decide not to hire us. I guess... No news is good news.

Here's the email,

Cheddar

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I think our OTS hiring is done for the near future. I ran into one of the ladies in Pilot Recruitment last week that is temp assigned to another office. After catching up, I joked with her about a friend of mine who is stuck between interview phases (video and F2F). She told me there has been absolutely no word on when OTS hiring will resume, and that's why she's been farmed out to help in other areas. I'm paraphrasing and condensing a bit, but -"They've completely shut us down."

Unfortunately, OTS hopefuls have a few things going against them:

1. Flow thru agreements. I think they can account for 25ish a month, now that most of the last round of recalls are through.

2. Lack of real growth/"Shrinkage" - For those of us already here, if you have seen the latest "Crew News," it is very apparent that management is content with overselling flights and growing our regional partners. They tell Wall St we are deferring orders for capacity discipline, and tell the pilots we are waiting for NEOs/Max's and 787 seats... I'm sure it's a bit of both, but we are still retiring older airframes quickly. Attrition by retirement to "right size" the pilot force w/ flows to supplement.

3. We are still two years away from the big retirement wave, and I think we will be woefully unprepared as a company.

Sorry, I hope I'm wrong. I really, really do. I've since told most of my squadron mates to look to DAL/UAL/SWA. I have absolutely no idea if this management team really wants to compete on a global scale, or not. Last year, as a new hire, all I heard was international growth and "KDA," still feeling like a regional with big airplanes.

Sliceback

OTS hiring for non interviewed candidates - pilot mentioned that an interviewer had told him that he wouldn't be needed for the rest of this year for interviewing. So OTS interviewing is, at a minimum, sharply reduced in the second half of 2015.

Three percentage fleet reduction but the existing fleet is forecast to fly 2% more. Net of approx. 1% reduction?

First choice is the airline you don't have to commute to that actually hires you. IMO SW, due to the retirement numbers and flying options, shouldn't be anyone's first choice unless they live in SW only crew base city.

full of luv

I though AA already JV's with JAL and BA, no? Where else is left to JV to?

Senior Skipper

If I'm not mistaken, Eagle gets 50% of new hire spots. If there are no OTS people, how is it that eagle pilots are taking up seats?

flyguy81

Eagle isn't OTS. They're flow. They don't need to interview...they go right into class. OTS needs a interview....and they're not doing those because of the flow.

Senior Skipper

Yea, but I thought aa had to hire 1 OTS before 1 eagle guy flowed over??

QuagmireGiggity

50% is the minimum. They can do whatever they like as long as Eagle can handle it.

PRS Guitars

Exactly, I'm definitely not a fan of this flow-through. The regionals will pick up anybody with a pulse and proper certificates. There needs to be a filter or stratification in order to get to a Legacy. I'm not saying these are bad dudes. I'm sure on balance they are good people, but certainly there is more chance of getting a bad apple with a flow then with an interview process. I hope this goes away in the future.

Now go ahead and throw your spears at me.