Airtran Hiring

[D8drvr]

I hear AirTran is hiring. There is a new hire class that started a few weeks ago. One starting in a few days. Another next month.

They posted a profit 3rd quarter.

Why are there so few posts about AirTran?

 

[Ty Webb]

If you do a search under AirTran, you should be able to find quite a bit of info.

I'm not sure why there isn;t more of a buzz about hiring. Probably the fact that since this is the first interviewing that we've done sine February, it has started off small and quietly . . . I am sure once hiring starts ramping up for next year, there'll be a lot more "noise" on the board, people asking for info, interview gouge, etc. Right now, it takes a well-placed referral, apparently, and they really like 121 PIC's.

The best guesses look like by the end of next year, we'll have 70 something B717's, which means probably close to 900 pilots and we'll be in the third year of a four year contract. The present contract is pretty **CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED** good, too, for this size operation and this size equipment. Most of our pilots are very happy here- you seldom hear any pointless bitching, if you know what I mean.

We've got our warts, too, like any company, but I can say that in the year I've been here, I've seen things always moving forward, always changing, and almost all of it for the better.

To paraphrase Gordo Cooper, " . . . Got me a Corvette, a new house with all the furnishings, free lunch from one side of the country to another, and I haven't even gotten into that left seat yet".

 

[flx757]

Do you even know where that lumberyard is?

 

[Ty Webb]

I've given up the lumber industry for a lucrative practice in the art of accupessure.

 

[Fly-By-Cable]

Saw hirring/upgrade schedule for next year. Looks like more and more initial upgrades vs. transitions which should be done with by October.

 

[Ty Webb]

Any other info- like how many upgrades/retirements/newhires for next year?

 

[DC10]

Class Dates

There was a new hire class on October 31st. I am in the next class which will be starting on January 9th, assuming it's not moved forward as the last two classes were.

FYI I started sending in resumes in Oct '01 with 2 LORs, interviewed in Oct '02 and received a job offer a week later.

I'll post my interview experience on aviationinterviews.com in the next couple of days.

Air Tran seems like a great company with huge potential for the future and I'm looking forward to being a part of it.

 

[717pilot]

For those of you wanting to fly for AIRTRAN, Ive been here over a year and a half and Im really enjoying myself. I just moved over from the DC-9 to the 717. After over 12 years at Piedmont as a DASH-8 Captain, I had enough of USAIR and have made a great move. Anybody who gets ired at AIRTRAN will really like it! A nice contract, great airplane plus we are growing! Should have over 80 A/C by the of next year. Should be almost 150 hired in 2003. Classes every month with some months 2 classes.

 

[T1bubba]

Good article- Part 1

Here's an interesting article from yesterday's paper.

AirTran defies odds, soars
Carrier: Profits and steady service have helped the Florida-based airline distance itself from its predecessor, ValuJet.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Paul Adams
Sun Staff
Originally published November 10, 2002



The clock starts ticking the minute an AirTran Airways plane touches down at Baltimore-Washington International Airport.

The low-fare airline's ground crew typically has 25 minutes to sweep the aisles, take on passengers, load luggage, fuel the plane and send it back down the runway for its next flight.

If that means pilot Randy Smith has to help toss bags into the cargo hold, so be it. Airplanes make money only when they're flying, and there's no room here for rigid work rules among the airline's unions.

"Some of the larger airlines can't be low-cost carriers because they simply have got a bureaucracy that won't allow them to be low-cost carriers," said Smith, taking a break from his preparations for a flight from BWI to Boston last week.

That focus on keeping costs low and productivity high has made AirTran Airways one of the few airlines in the nation to turn a quarterly profit since the terrorist attacks last year.

The company, which operates a hub out of Atlanta, earned $5.1 million in the second quarter of this year and $1.2 million in the third quarter as revenue increased by 22 percent. Analysts expect a profit for the year.

While major airlines have been busy parking planes and laying off thousands of employees, Orlando, Fla.-based AirTran continues to take delivery of new Boeing 717s and plans to expand by about 25 percent next year. It operates 398 flights a day to 40 destinations.

That means more low-fare flights are destined for BWI, where AirTran offers 24 daily departures and is on pace to become the second-biggest carrier behind low-fare leader Southwest Airlines. The airline is expected to expand its BWI operations to 35 or more flights a day in the next year.

"I think we can do more in Baltimore, but we also know who owns Baltimore, and it ain't us. It's [Southwest Chairman] Herb Kelleher," said Joe Leonard, AirTran's chairman and chief executive.

The only thing more remarkable than its continued growth is that the company is even around.

AirTran is the successor of ValuJet, the tragedy-scarred airline that few gave any chance of survival five years ago. The airline's name became synonymous with low quality and worse after oxygen generators caught fire in the cargo hold of Flight 592 in 1996, starting an intense blaze that doomed the plane within minutes of takeoff. Five crew members and 105 passengers perished in the Florida Everglades.

The disaster focused attention on the airline's aging fleet of DC-9s and raised questions about safety among small, start-up carriers.

The airline was shut down for three months after the crash, and passenger counts remained low after service was restored. Federal investigators placed most of the blame on a Miami maintenance contractor that improperly loaded the unmarked generators onto the flight.

In a bid to distance itself from the disaster, ValuJet bought AirTran - a smaller competitor with about a dozen planes - in 1997 and took its name.

The money-losing airline limped along until 1999, when Leonard, a former Eastern Airlines executive, took the helm and began an austerity program aimed at restoring profitability.

"I mean, they were dead and gone," said Stuart Klaskin, an aviation consultant with Klaskin, Kushner and Co. in Miami. "Joe Leonard, through a combination of skill and force of personality, led this thing through the dark ages."

A member of the old school of airline management, the plain-spoken Leonard rallied employees around his plan for greater cost-control and safety. He started by emulating Southwest's simple fare structure and adopting a similar self-deprecating marketing strategy aimed at softening its image.

AirTran also came up with some innovations that set it apart from competitors. Unlike Southwest, AirTran has assigned seating and a business class, allowing passengers to upgrade to a roomier leather seat in the front of the plane for $25.

"While we were down and had everybody making fun of us, people became very, very resourceful because they really had to to survive," said Robert L. Fornaro, whom Leonard hired as president and chief operating officer in 1999 in a management shakeout. "It had a tendency to pull people together."

 

[T1bubba]

Part 2

Road to recovery

Key to the recovery plan was forging a tighter relationship with Boeing Co., which helped finance the airline's purchase of 717s in exchange for an equity stake in the company. The last of AirTran's older DC-9s will be phased out next year, leaving it with nothing but 717s.

When the transition is complete, AirTran says, it will have the industry's youngest fleet.

"It was a very important piece of changing the image of the airline," said Fornaro, who lives in McLean, Va., and commutes by plane to company headquarters in Orlando every week. "It clearly disassociates ourselves with ValuJet."

Rick Pedra, AirTran's Baltimore maintenance manager, talks about the Boeing plane as if it were a high-performance minivan.

He points out the plane's two Rolls-Royce engines, Goodyear tires, roomy bathrooms and spacious overhead storage bins.

"The new aircraft has really made a difference on the product," he said, taking a walk around an 8-month-old 717 parked at BWI last week.

When he gets to the forward cargo hold, Pedra casually notes the up-to-date fire suppression system, a requirement on airliners as a result of the ValuJet disaster.

"A lot of mistakes that we learned from that [accident] were basically passed on to all the major airlines," said Pedra, who worked for ValuJet before it became AirTran.

Analysts agree the 117-seat plane deserves substantial credit for the company's turnaround. The 717 uses 24 percent less fuel and, by virtue of being new, saves the company on maintenance costs.

By flying one type of airplane, the company will save money on employee training and will eliminate the expense of stockpiling parts for several aircraft types. It's a formula Southwest has used for years.

"They reclaimed their reputation for maintenance and safety" under Leonard, said Ray Neidl, an airline analyst with Blaylock & Partners LLP. AirTran is one of three airlines whose stock Neidl rates a "buy."

AirTran squeezes the most out of its new planes by avoiding the work rules that have hamstrung major carriers such as bankrupt US Airways and financially troubled United Airlines. Pilots at the carrier average 65 to 70 hours in the air a month, compared with an estimated 50 hours a month at major network airlines, Neidl wrote in a research report on AirTran.

Pay is generally lower than at major airlines, but some employees consider lower pay preferable to lower job security.

"For me, it reflects on a healthy company," said Smith, who joined AirTran as a pilot after his former employer, Sun Country Airlines, fell on hard times. "How many airlines have I been through? Do I want to see another one go away?"

New employees are required to undergo cross-training to increase efficiency. For example, those who work below the wing are expected to head upstairs and help check in passengers if ticket agents get swamped.

Similarly, supervisors and ticket agents are expected to help load luggage if the need arises. Even the airline's unionized machinists have been known to load bags in a pinch.

"They've done it on many, many occasions," said Michael Kopay, AirTran's BWI station manager.

Leonard came to the carrier with a reputation as a heavy when it came to dealing with unions at now-defunct Eastern Airlines. But that image seems to have been extinguished over the past few years. He and other senior management meet with employees throughout the airline's system quarterly to discuss everything from finances to employee complaints.

When the terrorist attacks last year sent the industry into a tailspin, the airline's unions readily negotiated temporary pay cuts to help see the airline through the crisis. Within a week of the attacks, the in-house pilots union accepted short-term salary reductions and changes in minimum flying guarantees that reduced pilot-related costs by 22 percent.

Teamsters Local 528, which represents the airline's mechanics, inspectors, ground-support mechanics and stores clerks, accepted a shortened workweek and other concessions that shaved costs by 21 percent. The reductions were reversed within a few months.

"That was done like that," Pedra said, snapping his fingers. "The employees actually went to the president and said, 'Hey, we'll do this,' and it helped out the airline immensely and we didn't lay off one mechanic."

The airline's quick recovery has allowed it to begin service in eight more cities in the past year, including Baltimore, which the carrier began serving in December, right after Arlington, Va.-based US Airways closed its BWI-based MetroJet service as part of a cost-cutting move.

Revenue guarantees have been key to expansion in cities that lack low-fare service. In exchange for AirTran's commitment to begin service to Wichita, Kan., in May, city officials agreed to defray start-up costs by covering the airline's losses for up to $3 million a year for two years, said AirTran spokesman Tad Hutcheson.

With the economy struggling, the carrier tapped those funds this year. The limit was reached by September.

"We knew we would lose money going in," Hutcheson said. Cities still win, he said, because AirTran forces other carriers to lower their fares by as much as 50 percent to compete.

Partnerships

The company has negotiated such public-private partnerships in nine cities. Maryland has paid $100,000 in the past year to help promote AirTran's flights, but transportation officials did not provide a revenue guarantee. Hutcheson said no guarantee was necessary in Baltimore because the carrier was able to immediately pick up established low-fare routes vacated when US Airways killed BWI's MetroJet service.

"It was a mature enough market," Hutcheson said. "It wasn't as risky."

Analysts say such arrangements, which have been questioned by some taxpayers, are a critical part of the airline's aggressive growth strategy.

In an interview after AirTran's third-quarter earnings report, Leonard talked about increasing the frequency of flights to cities on the East Coast and expanding the airline's Atlanta hub. Preparations are being made to begin flying coast-to-coast by extending the 717's range with added fuel tanks or buying a new, longer-range plane.

"They will forever have to live in the shadow of ValuJet to some extent, although there is nothing about the company now that I can see that is ValuJet," said Klaskin. "There's no ValuJet legacy there."

 

[FL717]

I've been saying for a long time on this board... AirTran is a great place to be. Our contract is decent. The pay is good. And the best part is that we are profitable and growing during one of the worst times in airline history. There are those out there that have what to say about us, but we are definitely walking the walk AND the talk and it feels good.

All those people who commpare/connect us to ValueJet really don't have a clue. It IS a totally different company with different management, and a majority of the total employee count are people who were not ValueJet or AirTran Airlines. The post merger people (management and labor) are what define AirTran Airways.. not history, not old press releases, or nay sayers.

 

[DougCorp-9]

New hire schedule starts in January and will be 15 new hires every 3 weeks until we reach 150 and then the hiring needs will be evaluated after that. That is the latest from the training department.