SteveA

All those guys are at Delta right now. We're behind the hiring power curve and, I think, missing out on highly qualified pilots from a range of backgrounds. I think when we do pick up the pace, your first set of criteria will be more accurate.

pilot141

Oh, I agree.

That's why I made the point so ridiculous that even the management trolls that read this site can figure it out.

We are no longer the first, second or third choice of guys getting out of the military. We are no longer the only game in town.

The American guys just approved a JCBA that has a lot of problems but also includes HUGE pay raises. People looking to fly for an airline are not looking at FedEx as a first choice.

But our hiring department seems to be stuck in the delusional astronaut world that they enjoyed for about 3 years. Yeah, keep paying that ex-Delta weenie the big bucks to tell us how to weed out thousands of qualified people.

Oh, wait. FedEx can ONLY hire the BEST pilots because we are now giving everyone LESS training. See how that works out in the long run...

Dragon7

The positives no longer outweigh the negatives.

Wildmanny

Shack! I mentioned this exact sentiment a long time ago. While the majors start paying their guys more than us AND are stocking their benches with the most qualified guys, we are going to get what is left.

What we have within flight ops is a crisis in leadership. We have been rudderless for so long that in order to break us free of the myopia, something drastic will have to happen. I believe that you'll see a major change in the direction and players in fairly short order. We have deluded ourselves into thinking that we are so incredible that everyone will fall all over themselves to come here. Except they aren't. Unimaginable that we can't fill not one, but two newhire classes.

We better figure this out pretty quickly. Projections are that the U.S. domestic market is going to need 45000 pilots to account for age 65 attrition over the next 10 years. So, either the age is going to have to be raised again and the qualifications are going to come down.

Tick tock. We are in the calm before the storm. Discuss.

WM

champ42272

Couldn't agree more. My wife is a Delta pilot and they are scooping up the military pilots.

What surprises me the most is that a "tech savvy" company like Fedex has the same staffing forecasts as the U.S. military - feast or famine. It seems Fedex and the military are always behind the hiring/training power curve.

Ultimately it is all about leadership, and FedEx has a vacuum in that department right now.

Butch

MD11HOG

Vacuum in leadership? What are you guys talking about? Doesn't your car make a statement about you? I mean he drives a Maserati or Lamborgini and parks it right out front of AOC for you guys to see. It proves we have the best leadership. Our chief pilot drives the coolest car of any chief pilot. That's Leadership

frozenboxhauler

Jet time is overrated. 3,000PIC, period and I'll give you one DUI ( none of us are totally spotless).
fbh

Good Beer

Direct from the lips of our HR lady today.."no new hires to HKG until the base is mainly stood up". Basically they were planning on training guys off the street and holding the current ones there to keep staffing up on the Bus during the transition.

Someone then realized that the new hires wouldn't be able to get consolidated, and would be sitting around not flying waiting for the base to open. Guy who are now in training and will activating prior to the June start date can expect to have lines with DH from to HKG to MEM or CGN to fly and get consolidation to solve the green on green that the FAA wont give us a waiver for.

They could have done that with a new guy, but decided that bouncing a new guy around the world to 3 different bases on a new airplane may not be the smartest thing.

That's why the new hire classes were canceled and the training letter was "adjusted".

TonyC

That's not a new realization. I'm sure that FedEx assumed the FAA would grant a waiver to §121.438 Pilot operating limitations and pairing requirements., specifically subparagraph (b)
There are 3 "circumstances under which the Administrator may -- emphasis on may -- authorize deviations:
That doesn't apply -- we have a whole bunch of B-767 guys now.
Nope, not that one either -- we've got a bunch of B-767s now.

Oh, yeah, this looks close. We recently established a new domicile in Indianapolis, and we're assigning B-767 pilots there, and the FAA recently granted us the waiver.

But Hong Kong is not a new domicile. Heck, it's not even a domicile, it's a base, but why get hung up on semantics?


Actually, I'm not sure this is the specific objection the FAA has, or that it's even the FAA driving the problem. The "75 hour" rule won't just apply to new hires, it will apply to guys who have been in Hong Kong for several years already, but are new to the B-767. I'm told that the FAA will not approve newhires flying in the Foreign Duty Assignment in Hong Kong. I've also been told that China will not let new hires fly in the FDA. Since I haven't heard of a similar restriction with newhires in Cologne, that lends credence to the China element.

I wonder if we'll see some sweeteners in the FDA LOA any time soon.






.

FDXLAG

Not while they have STVs to fall back on.