Hou757

Thing to remember is that as current FO's upgrade you will continuously be bumped down to reserve if not to constant FO. Unless you live in a base this is so not worth it! Plus I don't see how it is possible for TSA to staff this many planes. My guess is they will be parking older planes due to lack of staffing. Think twice before making a move just to chase upgrade. Good chance you will regret it.

BrewCity

The XJT Butt-Hurt is strong in this one.

minimwage4

There's truth to this advice. Statistically your chances of staying at an airline as a dec are low unless you live in base. You'll be on reserve indefinitely.

DENpilot

Cut them some slack. Their careers are being flushed down Smisek's executive urinal due to no fault of their own, while yours is lucky to float on top of the regional urinal cake.

flyingreasemnky

If you do the numbers on the math, this doesn't require that many pilots. RAH somehow finds more each year than this requires. You will also see a lot of other regional pilots jump ship. People on the bottom of the list at RAH will see a quicker upgrade at Trans States than they will every see there. At RAH, the bottom pilot has over ~1,200 pilots between them and upgrade but, at TSA, they would only have ~160 if they started now.

RAH is losing pilots to PDT, PSA, Compass and Mesa like crazy. Now they are adding another pilot group to the list. Trans States already has a better contract than RAH as well.

I know you will also see a great deal of pilots leave from Envoy, Endeavor and possibly Expressjet as it is the only chance of ever seeing an upgrade. If they are hired as a CQFO, its not even a pay cut other than the 12 weeks in training. Endeavor and RAH will see an automatic pay raise to higher than they can earn at their current employer. I know people at Skywest, Envoy and RAH that are currently interviewing for CQFO position.

Hou757

I have nothing but respect for most of the TSA guys I've met. I'm glad to see them getting some flying. These are planes that we were going to park anyway so no hard feelings. I just hate seeing guys get hosed for chasing an upgrade that seems very risky right now.

RgrMurdock

I personally don't see it as that risky if you're already near the bottom at some other regional. More pay immediately than any other regional can pay out as an fo. Doubling of the fleet means you'll upgrade if you get on soon as either an fo or cqfo. If you're a cqfo you'll be in reserve a long time. That's the only catch but it's not a secret.

TeamRamRod

You guys were parking 36 XRs? From what I've heard, none of these were slated to be parked by the end of 2014. I could very well be wrong, feel free to correct me if that's the case.

As others have said, the staffing shouldn't be a problem. There has already been 7-10 XJT interviewees since the news broke that TSA was adding to their fleet. I've heard of a few from RAH as well. They're interviewing 5-7 people per day, 5 days per week. In order to staff this flying, they want 2 classes of 20 per month. With how many they're interviewing and the number they want in class, this still allows recruiting to turn away unsatisfactory applicants, which they've still been doing.

MavAv8r

This. That's the way this industry is. Pilots will come for the movement and upgrade, and over the next 18 months there will be a lot of both for the growth alone.

Squawk87

If you are on the bottom at other regional then you most likely nowhere near the upgrade/CQFO requirements at TSA. It's safe to assume that many FOs on the bottom of seniority lists at other regionals has around 2000 hours total time.... To get the extra 1500 hours to be liable to upgrade at TSA will take at least 2 years. A lot of water will flow in the river during these 2 years.
Now if you are on the bottom of the seniority list and got the 3500 TT with 1000 jet hours, then its a whole different story. MHO