Expressjet Update!!!!

[boxjockey]

Now everyone reading this take it with a grain of salt, but as of five days ago this is what's going down in the training department. I flew with one of our designated examiners last week, guy has been in the training department for eight years, so should be a pretty good source of information. Starting in Jan, we are training 128 new-hires per month indefinitely. When he told me this, I thought he was joking. He wasn't. As of five days ago, the plan is to hire 1500 new-hires this year!! Apparently CAL has an average of one retirement per day this year. That combined with thin staffing to begin with, should lead to the express people who have employment letters with CAL all being gone by Aug this year. I'm not sure of the total number, but somewhere in the vicinity of 400 pilots. The 128 new-hires is also in addition to 64 captain upgrades per month to continue indefinitely. We're also scheduled to recieve around 20 aircraft this year. Now on the downside, he seems to believe we WILL NOT fly larger aircraft for CAL. Supposedly as part of their impending concession package, they may fly their own 70-90 seat aircraft in a move resembling Mid-Atlantic at US Airways. These things change all of the time, and he cautioned they will probably change again, but for now that's what's going on. If you have the quals, do the online app, things are really getting fired up. Looks like that upgrade may be coming sooner than I thought.

box

 

[Mosquito]

Now everyone reading this take it with a grain of salt, but as of five days ago this is what's going down in the training department. I flew with one of our designated examiners last week, guy has been in the training department for eight years, so should be a pretty good source of information. Starting in Jan, we are training 128 new-hires per month indefinitely. When he told me this, I thought he was joking. He wasn't. As of five days ago, the plan is to hire 1500 new-hires this year!! Apparently CAL has an average of one retirement per day this year. That combined with thin staffing to begin with, should lead to the express people who have employment letters with CAL all being gone by Aug this year. I'm not sure of the total number, but somewhere in the vicinity of 400 pilots. The 128 new-hires is also in addition to 64 captain upgrades per month to continue indefinitely. We're also scheduled to recieve around 20 aircraft this year. Now on the downside, he seems to believe we WILL NOT fly larger aircraft for CAL. Supposedly as part of their impending concession package, they may fly their own 70-90 seat aircraft in a move resembling Mid-Atlantic at US Airways. These things change all of the time, and he cautioned they will probably change again, but for now that's what's going on. If you have the quals, do the online app, things are really getting fired up. Looks like that upgrade may be coming sooner than I thought.

box

Sounds too good to be true.

 

[labbats]

Believe it when you see it. Words to live by.

 

[relief tube]

1500 new-hires in one year? 128 a month? Unless John and Martha King are pitching in to help the training department, that's a lot for one company to train.

 

[wahoo250]

Either way the growth is supposed to be tremendous unless something happens.

 

[Superpilot92]

Well i hope we all hear something soon either way!!

 

[COEX-FO]

Sorry to rain on the parade, but it's true there are 64 CA upgrades for Jan and Feb but 128 new hires per month is just not going to happen.

The training department cannot handle that many. At best, 128 training cycles in a month is a strain. I would expect 64 new hires for quite some time coupled with 64 CA upgrades to be about it.

Maybe I'm wrong but that how the class schedules appear to me and I used to be in the training department and watch the schedules pretty closely for just such information.

 

[Aerobat007]

not that i dont like the sounds of that but can anyone back that info up, i need a cross fix.

 

[AviatorTx]

I'm going to go buy a lotto ticket and take my chances there.

Our instructors are notorious for spreading incorrect rumors here. Their heart might be in the right place, but unfounded rumors based on hearsay are just that.

Fact: We currently have NO flowthrough. The odds of getting a new one are 50/50 at best. So far, CAL has not agreed to take the pref-interviews that hold letters. This may or may not happen. Even IF it does, there are not nearly enough letter holding pilots to even come close to the numbers mentioned on this thread.

I hope this to be true, but I have yet to see anything that would indicate that there is ANY fact behind this rumor.

If the rumors coming out of our training department were true, we would also have several 170's on property now, as well as a few 737-500's.

 

[wahoo250]

what coex fo said is about right...well Im off call going to denver to ski see yall monday. this reserve stuff is some boring S**T

 

[LearLove]

Now everyone reading this take it with a grain of salt, but as of five days ago this is what's going down in the training department. I flew with one of our designated examiners last week, guy has been in the training department for eight years, so should be a pretty good source of information. Starting in Jan, we are training 128 new-hires per month indefinitely. When he told me this, I thought he was joking. He wasn't. As of five days ago, the plan is to hire 1500 new-hires this year!! Apparently CAL has an average of one retirement per day this year. That combined with thin staffing to begin with, should lead to the express people who have employment letters with CAL all being gone by Aug this year. I'm not sure of the total number, but somewhere in the vicinity of 400 pilots. The 128 new-hires is also in addition to 64 captain upgrades per month to continue indefinitely. We're also scheduled to recieve around 20 aircraft this year. Now on the downside, he seems to believe we WILL NOT fly larger aircraft for CAL. Supposedly as part of their impending concession package, they may fly their own 70-90 seat aircraft in a move resembling Mid-Atlantic at US Airways. These things change all of the time, and he cautioned they will probably change again, but for now that's what's going on. If you have the quals, do the online app, things are really getting fired up. Looks like that upgrade may be coming sooner than I thought.

box

"I flew with one of our designated examiners last week, guy has been in the training department for eight years, so should be a pretty good source of information."

I find that these are some of the worst guys to listen to when it comes to flight dept. news. It ranks right up there with "I had a guy in the JS" or "a senior guy in the training dept. told us" bla bla bla ..................

-----------------------------------------------
"Supposedly as part of their impending concession package, they may fly their own 70-90 seat aircraft in a move resembling Mid-Atlantic at US Airways."

But isn't CAL mainline calling back all their furloughees by this summer? If its like MDA then they would be staffed by CAL guys on furlough, how can they do this if everyone is called back?
-------------------------------------------------
"These things change all of the time"
bingo - one day your "movin on up", and the next, your not so "movin on up"

The only time your going to know for sure about 2005 hiring is on Jan 1st, 2006.

 

[UGAflyer]

1500 new-hires in one year? 128 a month? Unless John and Martha King are pitching in to help the training department, that's a lot for one company to train.

I don't know, they are pretty good, and they throw in some great jokes...

 

[mckpickle]

Why do all the juicy rumors come from the training dept?


Fact is this. After the "shildlers" list guys leave there are 189 guys with rights at CAL. I'm one of them and like many many other guys I have doubts about going over. 1600 pilots is retarded!!! Not going to happen. We are only getting like 20-30 more a/c. At 10 people per a/c thats only 200-300 people. Plus with a MAXIMUM of 3-400 guys going to CAL the max grand total is only around 6-700 pilots hired. That will be enough for the training dept to handle. DOn't forget we have 13-1400 capts that need a p/c every 6 months and 12-1300 fo's as well.


Sorry to rain on your parade.

 

[Britpilot]

Not going to be 1500 pilots this year. The number I have been given is 600.
Hiring is aggresive at the moment and I have been told that I will be busy for the rest of the year.

 

[Angus]

As of five days ago, the plan is to hire 1500 new-hires this year!!
box

I don't even work for Coex and I can tell you that this statement just lacks not just basic math, but common sense. Maybe you should stop, take a deep breath, and just take a moment to THINK about what you just said.

Besides all the recurrent sim training that goes on, hiring and training 1500 new hires in 12 months would involve resources that you don't even have. You could run the your sims and borrow any other available sims around the country 24 hours a day (impossible) for the remainder of the year and not be able to handle it all....

This Check-Airman didn't by chance sell you a bunch of cr*p did they?

 

[CLE145CA]

No offense, but there is NO WAY the training department can train 128 new hires a month. The 128 might be training cycles for new FO's and upgrades. The last time I was down there I asked how many the training department could handle each month. The instructor said at best, and stretching it, the department could train 72 or so new hires per month plus the upgrades and the recurrent PCs.

Unless we get two more sims this ain't going to happen.

 

[Mikes Apartment]

You guys are not thinking about this correctly......


If COEX wants to hire 128 pilots in a month it's totally possible. Think about Flight Safety.... Hobby, Dallas.....anywhere else. Our sims are not the limiting factor.
I'm not saying they will hire 128 a month but I wouldn't totally rule it out.

Hey McPickle congrats on being on the list to go to CAL. Aircraft orders are not the only reason we need pilots.... I would expect 400 or more Captains at Express will leave the seniority list in the next 12 months. The original goal for the company with the aircraft deliveries I believe was about 3000 pilots give or take... We currently have 2200 or so pilots.....give or take..... that leaves about 1500 or so more to hire after the flow-backs and preferentials leave....

frickin amazing.... don't rule anything out

Also what if the rumors that CAL is going to give more pref interviews are true?
We're understaffed as it is.

 

[generaltso]

Can someone briefly update us on the status of the flow-thru? Is it still valid?

 

[flyguy81]

talked to a buddy who is an FO and he said they were hiring 64 or so a month for the rest of the year...for what it's worth

 

[JetPilot_Mike]

I had a guy on my JS who heard from a guy who knew who was on the grassy knoll.I think he was a check airman, so it's legit...

 

[boxjockey]

If you people would read the first sentence of my post, you would see that I claim to be no profit. Look at Mike's Apartment numbers, and you get a pretty good idea of what's going on here. Even though ExpressJet is it's own company, in reality it's not. CAL still makes the decisions for this company, and if you think it's not true, you have some serious wool over your eyes. Training that number of people is entirely possible. We have 56 full time instructors, three sims running 24 hours a day, and first rights to the sims at flight safety. I'm not saying this is true, and my best advice is let's check the bid list for March. If there is that number of people being trained, they'll show up next month. Either way, there are a sh!tload of people coming and going this year.

box

 

[amcnd]

Eagle has over 60 fulltime instructors and can only do about 64 training cycles a month on the EMB. So 128 newhires + 64 upgrades seems high. It would be nice if it were true. But I would guess about 500-600 newhires max.

 

[Capt. Caucasian]

I don't buy it either. We are currently running all three sims atIAH at capacity plus three more at Flight Safety HOU and still we areunderstaffed (what a shocking change from two years ago).

I don't give too much stock into what rumors come out of the trainingdepartment. Every time I go for recurent they ask me about whatsgoing on. Now, if there was a spree of hiring into the TrainingDept. and Line Check Airmen slots were doubling, then maybe there wouldbe some truth. So far there has been no anouncements on hiring.

Frats,

 

[GEORGE DUBYA]

Why?

Why can't Hooter's Air be hiring as much as express jet?

 

[Nova]

You can't forget about the 2400+ pilot requiring 1 or 2 PC's a year. We might have 3 sims + the FS sims but a lot of that time is for recurrents.

 

[BluDevAv8r]

Sorry BoxJockey....but either your DE was way off base or you misunderstood him. For the next few months, we are hiring 64/month and upgrading 64/month. The number of new hires per month will taper off though by summer time but will still continue indefinitely due to attrition as well as growth. Expect some new developments in the next few days on our hiring front for folks at furloughed airlines, especially Independence.

-Neal

 

[boxjockey]

Ok, MY BAD. The union has spoken. Maybe you guys should go down there and set those guys straight. I definitely didn't misunderstand. We flew together for two days, and we discussed many things at length. Maybe he just wanted to be a jerk and spread bullcrap rumors.

"I appologize from the bottom of my heart for the misinformation which I have, with reckless abandon, spread to the readers of this board. I will appear at the entrance to terminal B, on the 21st day in the month of January, year 2005. I am prepared for, and welcome, the stoning, flogging, and beating I'm sure you are all anxious to bestow upon me. I hope that the punishment I will recieve can restore some of my fellow pilots' faith in me as an aviator, citizen, and as their brother. Thank you."

box

 

[BluDevAv8r]

Ok, MY BAD. The union has spoken. Maybe you guys should go down there and set those guys straight. I definitely didn't misunderstand. We flew together for two days, and we discussed many things at length. Maybe he just wanted to be a jerk and spread bullcrap rumors.

"I appologize from the bottom of my heart for the misinformation which I have, with reckless abandon, spread to the readers of this board. I will appear at the entrance to terminal B, on the 21st day in the month of January, year 2005. I am prepared for, and welcome, the stoning, flogging, and beating I'm sure you are all anxious to bestow upon me. I hope that the punishment I will recieve can restore some of my fellow pilots' faith in me as an aviator, citizen, and as their brother. Thank you."

box

No sweat dude. If you want, PM me the DE's name and when I see him at the Training Center this week (I'm in upgrade right now), I can talk to him. I'm sure it was an honest miscommunication. You were right though....hiring will continue here for quite some time. Fly safe!

-Neal

 

[azpilot]

There have been at least 4 classes of 32+ in the past month. People are going to Flight Safety sims for training. How long that will continue who knows.

 

[BluDevAv8r]

There have been at least 4 classes of 32+ in the past month. People are going to Flight Safety sims for training. How long that will continue who knows.

This isn't quite true. We have 64 new hires in training in January. The first class of 32 started on January 3 and the second on January 17. January 10 and 24 each has a class of 32 upgrades.

-Neal