Alaska Poolies called??

[flx757]

Great, another side bid. Back to reserve.

Maybe not. BG was speculating that many of the senior FOs who have not bid Captain to hang on to their QOL may now feel the need to do so to try and recoup their lost pay. He seems to think that there will be at least some upgrades amid the shuffling.

 

[RIDETHELIGHTING]

Any calls go yet?

 

[tico]

"We had an "all hands" meeting today in the training dept led by the Managing Director of Flight Standards and the Director of Training."

With any luck those two will no longer be in their respective positions and we can stop creating the most expensive 737 pilots on the planet......it must have been a sea of khakis, loafers and plaid shirts up on floor 2....I wonder what concessions they will ask for in trade for next years "big bid".... I dont think that we have any business growing at all until we get past our "contract situation" and that is a solid 4 years away....Someone needs to tell the monkeys that the objective is not to have the most people at work to get the job done it is to have the least.......It still has the potential to be a great part time job, but to make a career out of it or call it a profession is a Joke.. plain and simple

 

[flx757]

Actually, it was at Azteca and not on "floor 2". But I'm sure they will welcome your plan. I recommend you stop by with it as soon as you can so we can get this ship headed in the right direction.

 

[mach none]

"We had an "all hands" meeting today in the training dept led by the Managing Director of Flight Standards and the Director of Training."

With any luck those two will no longer be in their respective positions and we can stop creating the most expensive 737 pilots on the planet......it must have been a sea of khakis, loafers and plaid shirts up on floor 2....I wonder what concessions they will ask for in trade for next years "big bid".... I dont think that we have any business growing at all until we get past our "contract situation" and that is a solid 4 years away....Someone needs to tell the monkeys that the objective is not to have the most people at work to get the job done it is to have the least.......It still has the potential to be a great part time job, but to make a career out of it or call it a profession is a Joke.. plain and simple

Tico,
If indeed you work at Alaska, we are always looking for committee volunteers at ALPA. You seem to have lots of ideas, we will welcome your influence.

 

[tico]

Actually, it was at Azteca and not on "floor 2". But I'm sure they will welcome your plan. I recommend you stop by with it as soon as you can so we can get this ship headed in the right direction.

Lets start with this idea..... If you don't physically work at the airport..As in the people that can and do make a difference with the paying pax or the on time departure of their flight(csa, ramp, cleaners, caterers, line mechs, pilots and flight attendants) then your job should fall in the outsource category ( flight ops engineering, most of the training for pilots, flight attendants, mechanics, csa's etc.. printing and manuals, tech report writing, sim techs and that is just in your world and then we should cross the street and get rid of benefits, payroll, corporate and employee travel, mundane accounting... the list is long

It is just an idea but it would definiteley limit all of the costly, ridiculous empire building that passes for a corporate structure that we now have..... It seems to work for our neighbors that are trying to move to boeing field maybe we should try it......radical isn't it.....

 

[tico]

Tico,
If indeed you work at Alaska, we are always looking for committee volunteers at ALPA. You seem to have lots of ideas, we will welcome your influence.

I would love to, well not really but I don't seem to have the time between my full time job and my hobby flying for Alaska..... maybe some day

 

[Z_Pilot]

PM said directly to me and during his "speech" at a job fair 2 weeks ago that Alaska is going to hire 16 this fall and 60 next year.

Z

 

[alaskaplt]

What I can add (as of today....)

With regard to the MDs, they are around for a while. 9 are leased and 17 are owned outright. Two leases expire next year and one in 2007 with no plans to renew. After that they expire at the rate of 1 or 2 a year through 2013. As mentioned, to get out of the leases would be expensive. The last number I heard was around $200M. There is no current market for the ones we own. When the recent aircraft order was placed, there was no provision for Boeing to buy out any leases or otherwise take any of the currently operated aircraft. Instead the company negotiated very attractive terms for the new 737-800s. Plans are being made to make some upgrades to the navigation platforms in both the aircraft and the sim. While anything can change at any time, the current plan is to continue to operate the MDs for some time to come.

As to the new bid...it should be out in a week or two. The numbers I heard today were 60 new positions from one source and 80 from another. We have been told in training to expect 8 crews per month (on both fleet types) beginning in Oct. This is going to put sim time at a premium, especially on the 737, beginning in Jan. They were still talking today about how to manage the required sim time.

The projected block hours for 2006 for the MD fleet remains about the same as this year, even though the 2 aircraft previously mentioned will be going away. The projected block hours on the 737s for next year are increased over this year's, reflecting planned growth and additional aircraft.

Again, anything can change...and probably will. But this is what I hear as of today.

These bids always confuse the crap out of me. I see that they are adding 51 captain positions and reducing 8 captain positions. They are adding 20 fo positions and reducing 22 fo positions. Could one of you please explain this. I have worked at another airline where this was not confusing at all. I have yet to figure out what Alaska's bids mean. THat adds up to a net loss of fo's. Will they have to hire.

Thanks

 

[flx757]

These bids always confuse the crap out of me. I see that they are adding 51 captain positions and reducing 8 captain positions. They are adding 20 fo positions and reducing 22 fo positions. Could one of you please explain this. I have worked at another airline where this was not confusing at all. I have yet to figure out what Alaska's bids mean. THat adds up to a net loss of fo's. Will they have to hire.

Thanks

I don't know that I can explain it, but as to the "will they have to hire" question, I believe the answer is yes.

There are 41 more additions than there are reductions on this bid. What I was hearing roaming the halls as the bid was released is that they are planning on hiring between 44 and 50.

I guess more answers might be forthcoming after the award posting on Sept 16.

Finally, there was this note about the next bid: "We are estimating that the next bid will come out the first part of 2006 with an effective date around the middle of 2006. The size of this bid is estimated to be the same approximate size as this one--basing yet to be determined."

 

[Rhino]

from HR

" Here is the latest update. We will be hiring 44 pilots between the months of
October 2005 - March 2006. (The pilots in our pool will take 16 of those
positions.) "This is per the email from HR yesterday...

 

[mach none]

There will be a bid in the spring of approx. the same size as this one and one in the fall, size yet to be determined. This is via the SEA assistant BCP.