Originally Posted by Swakid8

‘It’s not sustainable…But this post tell me that you’ve been out of touch with what is happening at that part of the industry. Money is being throw at the regionals to keep them from total collapse….

Originally Posted by JohnBurke

IThere may be the occasional, rare case of a regional pilot making 450,000, but to suggest this is the norm or that the typical regional pilot is making this money, or that an Omni pilot can plan on bailing from his 767 to make 450,000 at a regional, frankly, is bull****.

Originally Posted by JohnBurke

I'm not out of touch with the industry. I've been in it and a full time, active pilot longer than many in it have been alive, and I'm very active as an pilot now...but the notion that regional pilots all making half a million dollars, and that Omni pilots are flocking to a regional and making that money their first year, is fanciful. Were that really the case, the regionals would rapidly become a destination airline. We wouldn't see thread after thread of regional first officers whining about being "forced" to upgrade, and the ACMI's wouldn't be full of regional pilots who are going for bigger and better. I wouldn't have friends bailing from the reigonals to make considerably less at major/legacy airlines. We'd see flow from FedEx and UPS to regionals...not happening. It's not going to happen.

There may be the occasional, rare case of a regional pilot making 450,000, but to suggest this is the norm or that the typical regional pilot is making this money, or that an Omni pilot can plan on bailing from his 767 to make 450,000 at a regional, frankly, is bull****.

Originally Posted by Guard

Guess not much luck filling latest 76 class, two people accepted then sent in letters saying unfortunately I won't attend as "I recently learned how members of the previous class were treated and my family cannot afford to be terminated after two months of dedication and hard work towards a type rating, I will be going to a xxxx instead, I must put my family first". Guess these letters are floating around the internet.

Originally Posted by PilotX2

Instability is the recruitment killer.

Originally Posted by JohnBurke

This wasn't Atlas, was it?

What does Air France do? Aeroflot? Air Canada? Doug's Props & Mops?

What's the Omni policy? Contractor until the checkride?

You're saying that Atlas might send an employee home during sim unavailability, keep paying them, and then bring them back? Hasn't Omni regularly done the same thing?

This wasn't a case of simulator unavailability, was it? What Atlas does during sim unavailability is therefore irrelevant, isn't it? Especially given that the operation under discussion isn't Atlas?

Some operations start employees at full pay on day one of training, others have a training wage; I can attest to having been put on a training wage for two months by several operators in the past, and in modern times, several still do. So, not without precedent. I don't know what Kalitta does now, but they used to put people on a 1,000 dollar training stipend and the employees had to get their own hotel.

In the case under discussion, Omni didn't send the training classes home because of simulator availability, but instead cancelled the classes, meaning that the contract pilots had no obligation owed from the company under the policy under which they were brought on board. Not even probationary pilots until after their checkride. Knowing that, Omni simply cut the classes, even two hours before the checkride, causing those who had given up their jobs, and taken a training wage without benefits for two months of day and night study at a hundred dollar a day stipend, to walk away empty -handed, without so much as a type rating for their effort. But here's where the discussion seems to take on a life of falsehoods.

They weren't really cut loose completely; they were retained on a training wage and told they'd be first in line for whatever class became available; short course to a checkride on the 767, or a 777 slot if that happened. Because Omni is owned by a company that has two other 767 operations, those in the cancelled classes were also told they'd have the option of going to those other companies (ATI, ABX), correct? Having been retained on the training wage, even though class cancelled and not simply sent home for sim availability, they were receiving that wage while they waited to either come back or while they hired on elsewhere, correct? Not that it's at all relevant, but if Atlas were to cancel a class, would they continue paying a daily sum to those no longer in the class?

Is it true that Omni has a class coming up and that all those from the cancelled class(es) were offered a return, with some accepting?

I'm not disputing the disgust that many express over the way this event was handled, but I am asking about clarification regarding some of the murkiness in the comments here; are these things correct, or not? For some who may be looking at Omni, knowing the truth may be of interest and important in making their own decisions.

I once knew a man who took up quick-draw shooting with a single action revolver, old-west style. Last I spoke to him, he'd shot himself in the foot three times. By some general tack, I've spoken with a number of pilots in the last month or two who have made reference to Omni as a place that pulls the rug out from under trainees, and a place to be avoided as both a destination, or as a stepping stone. One might say that Omni has shot itself in the foot, as metaphors go. Just because Omni can does not mean that Omni should.

I understand that better circumstance might be negotiated with a future contract, but was this class cancellation done under a future contract? If not, what might be isn't so much relevant, as what is. Therein lay my questions: what's the truth here?