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AWAC info

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Binger

Member
Joined
Apr 1, 2005
Posts
16
I would like to hear from some people at AWAC what the feeling is around the club house about the move to USAir flying. Is there a feeling of uncertainty about the future or was this a good move? Are the lines and schedules improved or is there more time between flights, a/c swaps and deadheads? Is there still a commuter policy in place, and any details on it? Is it realistic to think that many of the senior pilots will not be moving or commuting to the new domiciles? From the outside looking in..making an unbiased comparison AWAC seems to still be a strong company with good people and work rules. I am just looking for some insight from within. Thanks
 
I have really enjoyed my time at AWAC. Good company, good work rules, ok pay. It is better than most for quality of life issues. Right noe we are in the middle of transitioning the fleet so lines are bad and not really commutable. I just read a blurb from the union saying that they have spoken to the company and they are doin gthier best and that it should get better as more of our planes come out of paint shop. Take that for what it is worth... Yes, there is a commuter policy its got standard wording, two flights prior on any airline the company will positive space you if they can on U or UAL while we still work for them. Attrition is still high, mostly captains leaving for greener pastures ut there are a few junior fo's leaving trying to catch a faster upgrade. Right now that sits about 3.5 to 4 years, however it will be dropping in the short term at least to about 3 years because of a recent upgrade bid adding 40 captains.

AWAC is a good place to be. we have set ourselves up to not have to play musical rj's with our 50 seaters, and have a fairly good shot at growth with the new US Airways entity. good luck with your decision.

DD
 
The last bid that closed this past Friday only added 20 Capts. The results have not been published yet.
 
My cousin said they have picked up a few at 300TT. Not sure exactly where they came from or how they got it, but considering he's Capt on the RJ, I'd say thats fairly reliable. He's been there a few years now and seems to like it, minus the usual ups and downs of the uncertain business.
 
Thanks for the input. I posted more out of curiosity than anything else. Several years ago I worked at a USAirways express carrier and there were several guys who moved over to AWAC, all of which stated that they liked it much better. Deadheads, aircraft swaps and even double-deadheads seemd like a daily occurance. So I wanted to see if anyone currently in sencing a difference in the daily operation, schedules, flow of the day, etc. I noticed that Airways currently has nine different companies pulling the express banner through the sky. I guess I was surprised the number was so high..but what do I know.
 
From my one trip I have flown so far I like the USAir side more - we almost always get a jetbridge and everyone i have dealt with so far has been very welcoming. That being said PHL is a disaster but I think we all knew that going in to it. The majority of us are less than thrilled about being displaced to the east coast (the west coast would likely be a different story) and because of that you get the attrition that we are currently seeing. Seems to average between 25-35 a month which doesn't seem like much until you realize that we only have around 800 pilots. We have hired some low time people, both from the CAE program (bad) and just regular flight instructor types, though everyone I have met that was hired under 1000 hours and didnt PFT had a personal recommendation from a current line pilot. Our fleet is currently shrinking with the loss of the 146 flying but on the line we really aren't seeing any effects of it due to the rapid attrition. It is a decent place to work, I would say better than most other regional type jobs - especially if you live out east. Decent money (regionally speaking), decent QOL - isn't that why we got into this?
 
A friend of mine got hired recently. He had over 400 total time, wrote a cover letter saying he wanted to work for the company but he didn't have the mins. Also, he would update his information with HR once he had the time. A week later he got the call for an interview. He did fine at the interview. He also had some previous CRJ training which helped. I hope he does alright for the rest of us lowtimers!!
 
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Newhires have been getting PHL but they will likely be displaced out as the rest of us are forced to bid into the new bases. All of our current bases (DEN, IAD, ORD, ATW) will be closed by april so to answer your question a newhire should expect to be based in either ORF, PHL, or DCA.
 
Pretty good airline. I was furloughed from Independence and hired on right after that. Because I was still current and qualified in the CRJ, they put me through the short course training which was only 3 1/2 weeks. Attrition is high because of the domicile changes. The new domiciles aren't very commutable So they need pilots bad. Right now they can't find enough pilots to fill their classes so they're lowering their mins. I've heard well below 1000TT.

One caution. The wash out rate has somewhat increased to about 30% because of the low time pilots being hired. I don't know if it's the inexperienced pilots or the training department causing it. So the company is hiring 2 classes of about 20 per month and expecting about 43 or 5 pilots to wash out of each class.

Good luck.
 

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