What are the chances of AA hiring again?

[sexybeast]

I currently am a SkyWest pilot living in Dallas. Not a bad gig, but I would really like to work for AA some day. I know Southwest is here too, but I really would like to fly international one day. Any chance of them hiring off the street in the next 5 or so years?

 

[Big Slick]

They gotta recall about 3000 furloughees first. That should take at least 5 years.

Of course, then they will hire you and furlough you for 5+ years. LOL

 

[xkuzme1]

...

Do you mean EVER or just winthin the near future. Odds are that they will have to hire again sometime.

 

[HalinTexas]

Check out World (and North American), Omni and maybe a few other charter ops. Even NetJets. You might be flying int'l right out of training.

 

[IAHERJ]

You've always got the other major Texas carrier hiring and you'd get to go do some heavy international right off the bat. No better way to see if you like doing it than doing it in your first year. Then, if you hate it you are still young enough to go fly for SWA if that is something you have thought about or bid back to our 737 fleet and bid only domestic/carribean etc. type stuff. If you heart is set on the big AA, then you can always go that way in 5 years or whenever they start hiring. Despite what you may hear out there, many pilots have left one major for another over the years. My point is that you should take advantage of the hiring that is going on now and get out of the regionals. You can make another jump should you want but get somewhere where you can gain some seniority towards retirement should you never get the call from AA. That way you have a job paying well from which you can spend a career and retire from. Look at AAI as well. Good carrier with healthy pay and you can retire there. I flew for them for 3 years until CAL called. It wasn't easy to leave but CAL was my dream. The smartest thing I did was leave COEX for AAI(AirTran) because even if I never got a call from CAL, I could have had a nice career at AirTran. You follow?

IAHERJ

 

[Mr Hat]

When American gets going again, I'll bet no more than half of that 3000 actually go back. The longer they wait less and less pilots will go back. In 5 years you could have gotten something really nice going.

 

[glasspilot1]

I would really like to work for AA some day............. Any chance of them hiring off the street in the next 5 or so years?

Depends how long it takes for them to go through 3000 furloughes. How many will come back out of the 3000? Who knows?

If you do ever work here, be ready to just be a number at this Texas sized company.

 

[accinelli]

I currently am a SkyWest pilot living in Dallas. Not a bad gig, but I would really like to work for AA some day. I know Southwest is here too, but I really would like to fly international one day. Any chance of them hiring off the street in the next 5 or so years?

They'd start recalling faster if the Pilot Group had some sense and didn't go public with their refusal to fly the China route and impede AAs application for the China Route.

 

[psysicx]

Commuting from Dal to Ewr would be awful.

 

[catIIIc]

Commuting from Dal to Ewr would be awful.

Actually it was not that bad, I had a two leg commute through DFW to EWR and was not that with with CAL and AA as options. Never got bumped and never missed a trip. It was only for two months so I guess it could get worse.

 

[bayoubandit]

When will AA start hiring again, that's simple! About the time I get my recall. Ahh the joys of being the junior guy!

I've done the DFW-EWR commute many years ago. It wasn't that bad back then either.

 

[TWA Dude]

I'll bet no more than half of that 3000 actually go back.

I'll take that bet. The usual amount? (from Trading Places that means 1$) Historically, around ten percent don't return from furlough. Due to the age of the many ex-TWA furloughees and other factors this case will probably be closer to 20% -- but nowhere near 50%. Consider that over half of the guys who say they're never coming back actually shall.

break

To answer the original question, rumor has it that AA's ten/month recall rate will increase dramatically later in 2007. Even a very optimistic view would have a minimum of a year or two before the whole furlough list has been offered recall -- more likely longer. Due to the three-year bypass option it's possible off-the-street hiring could begin before all furloughees are back but it's way too soon to tell.

 

[AAflyer]

They'd start recalling faster if the Pilot Group had some sense and didn't go public with their refusal to fly the China route and impede AAs application for the China Route.

You don't know Jack! Why would you negotiate something like a super long haul agreement outside of sect 6? Why? We have gone down the road of lower expectations, in fact ALL legacy carriers have.

It is time to push for a change in the opposite direction. If AMR wants China Flying so bad, then they can negotiate our contract includling super long haul.

Hell, when they negotiated the last contract under duress it was done in under a couple months.

Why don't you stick to bitchig about NWA, you are probably one of a handful I have met in MSP telling others what a great deal your past TA was.

AAflyer

 

[AAflyer]

I'll take that bet. The usual amount? (from Trading Places that means 1$) Historically, around ten percent don't return from furlough. Due to the age of the many ex-TWA furloughees and other factors this case will probably be closer to 20% -- but nowhere near 50%. Consider that over half of the guys who say they're never coming back actually shall.

break

To answer the original question, rumor has it that AA's ten/month recall rate will increase dramatically later in 2007. Even a very optimistic view would have a minimum of a year or two before the whole furlough list has been offered recall -- more likely longer. Due to the three-year bypass option it's possible off-the-street hiring could begin before all furloughees are back but it's way too soon to tell.

I would have to agree to what TWADUDE said, however judging everyone that hates AA, and what a horrible place it is, I expect to be hiring off the street in a year as know one in their right mind would come back to such a horrible company.

AA

 

[wings421]

How does AA view STL as a long term base? I know that they pulled about half of their flights out of there what, three years ago? Since then its stayed pretty much the same size. Any rumors about its future in AA's plans?

 

[aa73]

How does AA view STL as a long term base? I know that they pulled about half of their flights out of there what, three years ago? Since then its stayed pretty much the same size. Any rumors about its future in AA's plans?

Good luck figuring that one out. Nobody here knows.. it's all up in the air. However, given that they built a brand new pilot/FA ops (best in the system), I'd venture they're gonna be there awhile.

AA hiring.... tough one as well. My guess is in the next 3-5 years, we'll see off the street hiring. As was mentioned above, this would be due to the large number of pilots not wanting to come back.

Good luck!
73

 

[sexybeast]

Thanks for the speculation guys. I would really like to stay in the DFW as far as airline employment goes. I currently commute to DEN which hasn't been too bad, but when I settle into my final career airline (if there is such a thing) I would like it to be based out of the DFW area.

I currently have 30 years of flying left (assuming age 60 and good health) so I am not in a hurry to get on with any major. Like I said before, I don't have it too bad at OO. I currently help run a successful family business in the DFW area (I married well) so this is the only place I would want to be based.

I know it may be backwards, but my preference is AA before Southwest. Southwest seems like a great company but I'm just not that interested. I would probably take Netjets of Flexjets over Southwest if I'm lucky enough to have that choice. Anyway, I have at least 3-5 years of 121 PIC time to gather before making a decision. Thanks again for the inside info!

 

[Mr Hat]

I'll take that bet. The usual amount? (from Trading Places that means 1$) Historically, around ten percent don't return from furlough. Due to the age of the many ex-TWA furloughees and other factors this case will probably be closer to 20% -- but nowhere near 50%. Consider that over half of the guys who say they're never coming back actually shall.

Mortimer, I would agree with you. Historically around 10% don't return from furlough....however this last furlough from 9/11 is anything but historical. I don't think there's been a furlough of more than 5 years in recent history to go on. Also in that time period, SWA, Jetblue, Fedex, Airtran, UPS and a bunch of overseas carriers have been hiring. Look at Uniteds recalls, not many returning.....we'll have to wait til the last round to find out for sure how many stayed away. Plus the bad blood between American and TWA...I just don't think many will be going back. I could be wrong though, I'm just sittin here at ol Expressjet and I'm more of an outsider looking in.
Cheers

 

[Andy]

Anybody have AMR's annual retirement numbers? Add ~200 annually to that number for recalls.
At this point, I'd bet on 1500 returning before starting to hire again. Plan on at least 500 accepting recall and immediately going on mil leave. With the hiring over at FedEx/UPS, I'd bet on 2/3s returning ... eventually.
I'm going to guess that AMR will start hiring again in the fall of '09.

As for STL, my bet is that they keep it and expand it once DFW gets maxed out. They originally bought up TWA because they couldn't get NWAC. The reason why they wanted NWAC was for another central US hub to relieve overcrowding at DFW and ORD. TWA with the STL hub was the runnerup and AMR decided STL was better than nothing.

 

[crashmbern]

i heard somewhere that over 4,000 AA guys are retireing in the next 10 years, similar to continental.