xjtguy

Read ANY of the threads about DAL, SW, and FedEx hiring. Most, if not all of your assumptions are not really accurate.

Bear in mind, EVERYBODY that starts at whatever airline is paid the SAME amount. So the bold statement is just plain wrong, or poorly worded.

Airbum

"As an AF pilot with extensive 4 engine international turbine time in two of the largest jets an AF pilot can fly, several thousand hours of total time, well over the highly desired 1000+ PIC turbine, AC in two jets and IP and EP in another, associates degree, bachelors degree, MBA, and countless "leadership" AF courses I am told by folks I am a "shoe in" for an airline. Yet it seems most airlines are interested in the low time, barely trained regional pilot. I am told these regional guys "worked really hard to get where they are"...are you kidding me? Becoming an AF pilot, while exhibiting leadership in a myriad of demanding situations, in addition to advanced degrees for promotion is easy? You have got to be kidding me? Like the rest of our country...those that work harder are limited in career progression while others who are "less fortunate" get to rise to the top. Calling a spade a spade. This industry has catered to the lowest common denominator while looking for the cheapest worker versus the most qualified."

Rhino12

you will find the airlines catering the lowest common denominator in training, schedules, pay, and anything thing else they can. I am making no comments concerning who has done more to "earn" a job.

Do not grasp the illusion too tightly that airlines are looking to run the safest operation they can, for it will slide through your fingers. Money is the only interest and you are the easy target.

1993! i missed that earlier, haha

Timbo

I was in the Pool! Tell her Jerry! I was in the POOL!!

My dad was trying to get hired by the Majors in the late 1960's. He was actually hired by North East just before Delta bought them in 1968, but Delta cancelled his new-hire class. He became a chief pilot for a part 135 op. but after 15 good years, it was sold, and he was unemployed. He got hired at People Express in 1983. Then interviewed at American, turned them down, and ended up at North West in 1985. He retired a few years ago. He says he doesn't miss it at all!

I have grown up in this business, watching the boom-bust hiring cycles, the up-down cycle has always existed, and always will. I grew up in the 1960's and 1970s, learned to fly at a small grass strip in south east NH, 50 miles north of Boston, (a pilot ghetto). I was surrounded by his friends who were all pilots, most had been on furlough at one time or another, from The Majors; Eastern, American, North East (Delta), Allegheny (US Air) Pan Am, TWA.

One thing I learned early on; this is a cyclic industry, it follows the general US and World economy. It grows in bursts, then crashes just as quickly when the world economy crashes. It's fortunes are tied directly to the price of oil. Every time oil prices shot up, in the 1970s, 1980s, 1990' and now, the US Economy slid into recesion and this industry followed closely behind, but with a double whammy, as it's hit by both the lack of passenger demand and higher operating costs (fuel mostly).

It used to run in about 10 year cycles, growing in the years that end with a 5, and then crashing in the years that end with a Zero. I wasn't smart enough to see that trend, but many years ago a 727 Capt. who was also a Wall Street Wiz pointed it out to me. This was 25 years ago...but the pattern is still pretty much there, plus or minus a year or two.

My guess, based only on that pattern, the World Economy will improve, around 2015, and the airlines will hire to accomodate the growth in demand and the retirements from age 65, but not for awhile. Right now they are obviously in consolidation/contraction mode, everyone except Emirates that is. And they could still crater, if they can't fill all those A380 seats with butts.

So, until the US and World Economy recover from "The Greatest Recession since the Great Depresion" I doubt we will see much hiring in the USA. If you want to be an Airline Pilot, you'll always need a Plan B.