Globemaster2827

One guy I know who's a senior 767 Captain and would've been the #1 pilot at Atlas is headed to Delta... He's in his early 30s and I believe starts Monday.... It's going to be a very rough year if they don't fix this now.

Another guy I know who's been here about 1.5 years starts at United next month. A 747 Captain I know is starting at FedEx. We lost a senior 767 Captain this month who could've held the 747 since his seat lock was expired... He went to JET BLUE!!! He'd rather start over at Jet Blue than be a 747 Captain at Atlas. It's turning into a mass exodus.

Cylinderpop

Alternative facts, the only ones that matter!

Davetastic

uglier with each post!!

Globemaster2827

I'm glad we agree on something Davetastic! It's great having you on here even if we don't always agree.

I think both of us agree that management is painting themselves into a corner by refusing to address this level of attrition. I'm looking at 767 Captains that I know who have their apps out who are buddies of mine on the PCD because I'm bored... I'm noticing an abnormal amount of April and May vacation. I'm noticing a ton of delayed flights this week. I think this Summer may start to look like Summer of 2015 and I think it could stay like that until Christmas.

TiredSoul

What's the 'Summer of 2015' ?

Globemaster2827

During the Summer of 2015 open time spiked because the hiring boom started to ramp up and Atlas was caught flat footed. They started to push the training center to max capacity for new hires and upgrades but it was too late and open time was easily available for the rest of the year. 2016 came and Atlas out paced attrition by something like 200 pilots and got ahead of the problem so that there weren't as many holes in the schedule during Summer and Fall.

In 2017 we've telegraphed that we'll have an extra 747 or two and 10 767s that must be staffed in addition to what we already have and we're probably going to be losing 40-50 pilots a month for the next 4 or 5 months. We have a TON of upgrades coming on the 767 and the 747 also has them next month and in May. That level of attrition exceeds max capacity for our training center. That means that we won't be able to staff what we've promised and open time will be the first indication. Our list has shrunk for 3 straight months now and will almost certainly shrink again.

Despite March being a traditionally slow month we've had a good amount of open time. Nothing crazy but way more than there traditionally is and we're not to vacation season yet. That starts in June and I'm betting that if our list continues to shrink, airplanes keep showing up on property, and the capacity of the training center is what management claims it is that we'll see a crazy amount of open time in the 2nd half of 2017. Keep in mind that all of this is BEFORE we've started adding jets. We add 1 a month for the rest of the year on the 767 which will require training on the 747 side as well to replace the army of captains they need which come from the 747. Around 1/3rd of the current 767 Captains on our list are in the training pipeline. A TON of the others have class dates at other airlines.

The difference between 2015 and 2017 is that now instead of an irritated pilot group they have a furious pilot group who's leaving the company for any job instead of just *****ing in the cockpit. The 4rth quarter at Atlas will be epic this year.

Davetastic

Same here globe. I remember 2015, but I was just unaware of how serious the staffing was. It will be very interesting this summer. Good luck to us all!!

Whaledriver

We had them by the short hairs the summer of '15 and "tried" to get people to stop VXing, but greed over took logic. I think if we had succeeded then, things would be very different now, oh well.

Tenacvols

Well this summer should be even more advantageous for the pilot group. Hope you can pull it off. Good luck!!!

dutch747

Things were a lot different in 15, hindsight is always 20/20.