theKDEN

Thanks for the info. Currently live in and based in DEN. Training won’t be a problem, but of course first year pay is a big hit, but we can do it. Early 40s.

Being at the front end a hiring wave seems smart but it seemed like not even that long ago FedEx was Parking planes and stagnant. What changed to cause so many hires? Is this just a COVID cargo demand thing that could go away when things return to normal and lead to furloughs in the future?

threeighteen

Would you give up your seniority at UAL to commute for the rest of your life? Are you ok with commuting to reserve? Is your family cool with that?

FedEx did secure some good long 7 year contracts for cargo, and likely will not furlough, however non contractual volume could easily drop off in 3-4 years, enough to trigger 4.a.2.b or whatever it’s called now where they start cutting everyone’s monthly guarantee.

I’d say ride it out with your seniority at UAL unless FedEx is absolutely your dream job. FedEx will likely never open a DEN domicile, and DEN-MEM has a lot of competition for jumpseats.

max8222

We were parking inefficient and older planes and bringing on one new 767 every five weeks and a new 777 every three months. We were still hiring so things were not as bad as the pro Amazon analyst were making it to be.

Thrust Hold

Wouldn't that put you in the bottom 1/3 at United, which recently took a big reduction in Monthly Guarantee in order to avoid furlough? I’d imagine that first year pay at FedEx wouldn’t be all that much of a loss then.

theKDEN

What good is 4 years of seniority when the furlough bell is most likely going to toll anyway? Seniority means nothing if you don’t have a job. There’s a number of guys I know at my airline that have 20 years of seniority, been furloughed twice and quite likely staring down the barrel of a third, having never even had the chance to be a captain at a major. I don’t want that career. I always justified going to a legacy by saying that another 9/11 was unlikely to happen and that we know how to run airlines now and make money (which was probably true before COVID), or that I was X numbers from the bottom and unlikely to see a furlough anyway. None of that was true. I love my job where I’m at, but I am a family man and also want something stable.

Hacker15e

It was parking airplanes it had already planned to park, and stopped newhire classes....while still accepting deliveries of new 767s and 777s.

So, not exactly the doooooooom that a lot of folks seemed to think it was.

C2078

You are not really in the front of the hiring wave, that started 2014 or so, maybe a bit earlier. While the negative trend situation was transitory (parking airplanes, earnings decline, eroding margins), it could have triggered a bad situation for Fedex, again, albeit transitory, and deeper pains could have been felt. The new airplanes coming in were mostly replacement for parked ones, the situation was definitely stagnant. Covid spared Fedex additional pain, not going out of business pain, not even close, but pain indeed.

I do think at least half, if not more of the Covid demand will go away eventually, 2-3 years, as airlines are learning the hard way that cargo is a hedge against pax demand drop. Like Emirates, Qatar and others, you will probably see some dedicated freighters by the US airlines in the future, which will have some impact on Fedex and UPS. This combined with return to pre Covid demand levels at some point might affect planning decisions.

So if it were me, flying at a regional or ACMI, or at a Legacy hired within the last year, not even a discussion, I would go. But with 3 years invested, living in base, and with the large number of upcoming retirements, I would tolerate the short term pain as you will reap the benefits 3-5 years down the road. I do believe Fedex and UPS will always be somewhat more stable than pax airlines, but giving up 3 years of seniority and a job you probably like and worked hard to get, that’s a tough decision.

wrxpilot

Commuting from DEN at FedEx definitely isn’t fun. I only did it as a new hire, and then left Denver to live in base (I was hired into an FDA). Now I have enough seniority that it wouldn’t be too big of a deal on most of the airplanes (because of deadheads). But those first few months as a new hire, I pretty much just stopped even trying to commute on FDX and used the pax planes. Good news is, I never got left behind on a pax flight. For some reason, a lot of our guys don’t even bother with pax jumpseating. A lot of them probably just have big travel banks and buy a ticket.

I was hired at UAL, but started class here first and stayed after getting my UAL class a few weeks later. I’m not going to lie, there were a couple times during my first year that I second guessed the decision. But after that first year, I found my niche and I’m extremely happy I chose to come here. I absolutely cannot imagine EVER having to go back to dealing with pax and FAs again. I know some people like that supposed “glammer”, but I do not.

Also, I don’t think it’s appropriate to get into the financials in public with so many of our colleagues having a rough year. But if you are curious, PM me and I can tell you what to expect and what my experience has been. It’s definitely very lucrative.

Best of luck, you have a much harder decision than someone that’s just been in property a year or so. Living in base at a legacy is pretty dang hard to beat.

PolicyWonk

I commend FedEx management for kicking the no-yield/low-yield Amazon freight to the curb.

Was it prudent in real time? Or was it serendipitous? Forward looking? Or did they glean it from the entrails of the laborious expense reports we fill out - dot and tittle.

I don't know which is most appropriate. But they made the right call.

I'm glad they did. We are carrying real-yield stuff in lieu of tripe and trollops for Amazon.

whalesurfer

Agree and I wish we (brown) could do the same. In effect we’re subsidizing our future competition and our potential replacement. We are giving them a breathing room allowing them to expand their own operation. Our management is very shortsighted.