ASA - Bottom Line - Would you work there...

[Mmmmmm Burritos]

Hiring and showing up for class are two different things. ASA can't get people to want to stay more than 15 mins. When Coex, Comair, Skywest, etc. ,are hiring--why come here????

Lemme rephrase that, they've been running classes of 32/month. As best as they can anyway.

 

[Plug]

Geez, talk about a bunch naysayers.

I did a college internship at an airline where I got to meet the first pilot ever to fly for that airline. He was hired to fly a ratty old 737 for this booze swindling, 2 pack-a-day smok'in lawyer. He was to fly this thing from DAL to HOU to SAT back to DAL. 30 years later that drunk lawyer with that tiny little route map has turned it in to the most successful LCC by the name of Southwest Airlines. By no means am I comparing ASA to SWA, my point is that they all have their moments. I don't ever expect to see ASA at the level of SWA, but I can think of several airlines that ASA triumphs over. I had dinner with a friend who is in his 2nd year at PCL making $24 per hour. At ASA you may start out making crap, but after year one you get a 65% pay raise from $19.02 to $32.65, and that is from a 1998 contract, so I expect it to improve a little here in negotiations.

QOL sucks here at ASA, but it sucked even worse at XJT up until recently. We can't hire enough pilots right now. Attrition is through the roof and we are taking delivery of airplanes. Next month we will have less than 20 CA's on reserve to cover over 400 lines of flying for the CR2. FO's on the CR2 are completing training and holding good build up schedules if not hard lines. Several FO's I fly with are with in their 1st year and are holding some pretty good lines. Upgrade is about 10 a month on the CR2, about 4 a month on the CR7 in both domiciles, and about 3-4 a month on the AT7. In fact, SLC FO is starting to go pretty junior now, and they are TDY'ing 4 CA's from ATL to SLC to bring the reserve stock up to 5 CA's out there. That is a sure sign that ASA is holding out on the awards for several reasons one of them being the moving expenses within 6 months of a domicile opening.

Attrition is back to pre 9/11 levels. We are losing on average 20 a month from all parts of the seniority list. Remember we hired a lot of furloughed folks that were in the 1300-1500 range of the list that are jumping to Airtran, SWA, Jetblue, CAL, Fedex, UPS, and more. Seniority doesn't always dictate experience. The best gauge on how many people have left is to look at the most junior pilot on the old list and where he/she is on the new list. Since I don't have the lists in front of me I can't spout off an exact number, but it is close to 100.

Someone mentioned we have a bunch of CA's in the 800 seniority range that are content to just sit and ride it out, well I am in that range and nothing is further from the truth. A good portion of our pilot group that I know of is trying build up the old resume and get the flock out. The pilots in my seniority range (mid 2000 new hires) have upgraded in the last year or two and are just hitting that magical 1000 PIC mark to bounce us up to the next level. Believe me, with CAL hiring 36 a month for the forseeable future because over 1/4 of their seniority list is set to retire in the next 5 years and they are growing like a weed, expect to see more folks heading that direction. Airtran's hiring has slowed but not for long IMO, and SWA's hiring will continue. Rumor has it that if DAL is somewhat financially sound that they too could begin hiring some time next year because of the LOA that brings back retired pilots expires then.

Yeah there is some doom and gloom, and the financials for DAL aren't all that great, but some of it is simply posturing. Hell, UAL and AAA are the turds that simply won't flush. No one has a crystal ball so roll your dice at whatever company you like the most and suits where and how you want to live.

Good luck

Just my $20 worth

 

[viper01]

Second year pay is $33.82 an hour at ASA. At least thats what my pay stub indicates.

 

[fsworld]

Great reply! Also, as for those new hire classes not being filled... Maybe you all should take a look at the actual classes. In my class everyone of us were happily there 30 minutes prior to start. The next two classes had 100% attendance too. Ill let you know on Mondays class.

 

[Plug]

Second year pay is $33.82 an hour at ASA. At least thats what my pay stub indicates.

Whoops, forgot about the 1/2% annual pay raise for negotiations and DOS+3. I was going by my raise in 2001 at DOS+2. Thanks for the correctio.

Cheers

 

[JDREsquire1224]

Thanks to all for the reply, both positive and negative about ASA. I am wondering why the term QOL is kept being brought up as "poor," though? What makes QOL at ASA worse than other regionals? I am expecting to get worked hard with airline during my first year. All factors considered, I think ASA is going to be a solid regional to work for, especially for someone in my shoes.

PS. That was a great post PLUG..

 

[Mmmmmm Burritos]

Thanks to all for the reply, both positive and negative about ASA. I am wondering why the term QOL is kept being brought up as "poor," though? What makes QOL at ASA worse than other regionals? I am expecting to get worked hard with airline during my first year. All factors considered, I think ASA is going to be a solid regional to work for, especially for someone in my shoes.

PS. That was a great post PLUG..

Don't let Fins scare you, he's still mad about Delta spending a few hundred bucks on a gay parade sponsorship. Come on over to ASA, it's not nearly as bad as the naysayers rant on about. No worse than any other regional anyway. Of course people get screwed every now and then... and some people more than others. It's a good time to get on right now also with us hiring so many.

 

[Plug]

Thanks to all for the reply, both positive and negative about ASA. I am wondering why the term QOL is kept being brought up as "poor," though? What makes QOL at ASA worse than other regionals? I am expecting to get worked hard with airline during my first year. All factors considered, I think ASA is going to be a solid regional to work for, especially for someone in my shoes.

PS. That was a great post PLUG..

QOL is a very broad term that is thrown around. There are several aspects to QOL but a big one that is lacking at ASA can be attributed to our middle management team. Our CEO does not have control over some of these middle managers that control Crew Resources and the like. These folks have very vindictive personalities and like to stick it to flight crews when at all possible. Such phrases from one middle manager comes to mind "I can't work with in the Pilot Working Agreement" or "We can't run an airline with the restrictions our pilots propose", etc. Meanwhile everything we propose is industry standard and a lot of other airlines have it working quite well. Things like an actual reserve system. Right now there is no system, just whomever scheduling feels like calling, and oh yeah, they'll extend a line holder if they can before using a reserve. Integration days is another one, and the list goes on and on. We are so short staffed that pilots are getting jacked around left and right. Several times I have been called in to do a round trip and scheduled to be done after that but I would keep getting extended and extended only to come home on day 6. Things like this make airline flying annoying and no fun, thankfully we have a lot of great crews to work with and though the experience of having no say as to what your schedule will be on reserve when you do have to work you usually have some good company.

ASA has its good things and bad things, one thing that is bad is that we are operating under an extremely out dated contract that does not address the needs of today's pilot group. Good luck and hope to see you on line.

Cheers