ACA pilots please read

[Twotter76]

Hello everyone I just got a call from HR for an interview at ACA and I was just curious how happy everyone is there. I am familiar with the pay levels but how about upgrade times and general quality of life? Any attrition of late or has it been stale? What is the junior base right now? I read somewhere back that most new hires are going into the J41; is this still accurate?

My times when I met the recruiter were 1300/700. I currently fly part 121. I actually never faxed them a resume and I dont know anyone that works there. Any info will be appreciated thanks

Twotter76

 

[J41CA]

Twotter76

Upgrade times are probably running at 2-3 years. QOL issues are the most discussed topic around the crew room these days. Our lines have sucked over the past year (Avg. 11 days off with 80 hrs guarantee). The company and ALPA just agreed to purchase and install a new crew optimizer program, which it's being touted as improving the schedules...everyone is waited with baited breath.

Junior base is anyones guess right now. We just had CRJ CA/FO's displaced to ORD from IAD. ACA is hiring into all AC, but they've had several J41 classes lately. The current plan is to hire 70 FO's for the J41. Given that they're running several J41 classes right now, I would suspect CRJ or FRJ would be the logic choice for the next classes. As for CRJ/FRJ base assignments, it's a crap shoot. I did hear an upcoming CRJ class was being scheduled for IAD. I'm not sure how accurate that is given how much the company stated we are under staffed in ORD. FRJ bases are most likely going to be CVG as we shift our flying on the Delta side.

 

[46Driver]

Very pleased with ACA - I have friends at the other regionals (ASA, Comair, Eagle, and Express I) and I wouldn't trade places with any of them. The hours and lines are dependant upon the aircraft you fly - we have some good ones with the Dornier on the Delta side of the house (some lines were over 90 hours with 13/14 days off - I have even seen lines for the #1 or #2 guys with 16 days off). Rumors continue that we are going to ramp down LGA and concentrate on BOS and CVG. I think most of the new hires are going into the J-41 and the CRJ - we were really ramping up the Dornier pipeline then they went out of business so we now have plenty of FRJ pilots. As for upgrade time - call it 3 years and don't expect it to get shorter until the majors start hiring again. Good Luck.

 

[Twotter76]

Thanks for the insight guys now how about a few more questions. How long is reserve running right now? It sounds like there must be some fairly large growth plans if they are hiring 70 FO's into the J41, which I would presume would mean less time on reserve. Does the J41 only base out of IAD? That was my impression after looking at the route maps. Is this accurate?Thanks

Twotter76

 

[j41driver]

J41's are based only in IAD. CRJ's based in IAD and ORD. 328Jet's in CVG, BOS, LGA and IAD (soon to be charter only in IAD).
The reason for the large amount of new hire J41 FO's is that we have been extremely short on them for quite a while. The bottom 20 or so J41 CA's seem to fly more as FO's than CA's. I'm not exactly sure how long reserve is running now but I'd bet that for the 41 FO's it would be almost non-existent.

 

[Jboss]

Seems like a lot of people are going into the J41 right now, which makes sense considering how short we are on 41 FOs. Have been for some time, but Dornier going tets up really drove the nail into the coffin and the company had to start training for the turboprop again. It looks as if most J41 FOs on line have bids in for other equipment/upgrades, but most have also been withheld until the company can train new pilots. I'm no expert, but it looks like the 41 FO list will experience significant turnover over the course of the next few months.