Furloughees: Any shot at SkyWest???

[F/O]

Furloughed major guy here......

One of the job fairs is going on in my area soon. I can get the necessary reference letter as I have a friend who is a SkyWest captain.

I'd like to work for SkyWest, do I have a chance? What is their honest view about hiring furloughees??

Comments from Andy Neill or anyone else appreciated...

Thanks...

 

[Andy Neill]

We welcome you with open arms IFFFF you are willing to resign your seniority (or bring several jets seats with you).

 

[Marko Ramius]

Andy,

Taking a wild guess that F/O is a UA furloughee, like myself. Unless you guys are hearing something different, I don't think J4J is going to come up with the UAX carriers. Our respective managements seem to believe that there is some way around this whole thing. Hopefully it's the simple way, they comply with our fleet size scope and bring our illegal furloughees back, and you guys get to continue to do your thing. The way things have been going lately though, I fear that they may have something ugly in store for us all. Something must have made your CEO at least consider the UsAirways J4J deal, and I'm sure it had to do with the current UA situation. I'm also surprised that our management didn't try and "soften" the ranks by having Avolar hire more UA furloughees or putting pressure on UAX carriers to do so. I'm sure the hiring numbers wouldn't have been big, but just hiring a few turns the rest of us into Pavlovian freaks. Avolar has hired maybe 5-8 UA furloughees, yet look at all of us chasing it down. With concession negotiations forthcoming, I figured they would try something to soften our stance against scope clause violations. Oh well, at least we aren't all fighting each other like UsAirways, and DAL currently are.

 

[EMB120FO]

Red October...J4J Ain't Gonna Happen

I think it is funny that just because SkyWest didn't almost run themselves out of business due to poor management decisions...pilots from that airline think SkyWest has an obligation to bring their furloughed pilots onboard. The US Air J4J went down in flames. Until UAL, DAL, US Air, or any other Major has a flow through for regional pilots...they shouldn't have a flow back. I'm sure they would love to hire you...just give up the seniority, and they will pay you $20 an hour too. Or the guys on the street should get a real job like the rest of us who aren't flying, instead of whining like usual.

 

[Wasatch CFI]

Amen.

 

[Marko Ramius]

EMB120FO,

I don't know who exactly you are preaching to, but I hope it's not me because your words certainly don't apply. My comments about regionals hiring major airline furloughees were coming from a MANAGEMENT strategic point of view, not an obligatory one.

 

[UALX727]

Whining???

What the helll are you talking about, EMB??? I'm furloughed and don't have a flying job. To be honest I couldn't care less either, because I know I'll get called back to UAL someday. I've gotten to where I want to be. Have you?? For now I'll do other things. I'm actually looking forward to a 9 to 5 job, being home at night, spending more time with my family.

Maybe one of the reasons you guys are doing so well in the regional business is simply due to the outsourcing of flying from the majors to the regionals. The issue is simply labor costs. You guys are the airlines version of a "C" scale. You guys choose to do the flying for a lot less than we would do it for at the majors. God bless ya, you are all going to be there for a while.

I don't blame any regional pilot for wanting to fly a jet. Just be carefull what you wish for. You will all get to fly regional jets, but at what price are you willing to do it??? You are essentially doing the exact same job as us at the majors, but for a lot less. Management will continue to pit one pilot group against another, giving the flying to the group who will do it for less. Where does it stop???

I really think one big seniority list may be the answer to this. There will be a lot of issues on seniority integration, but until all of us can speak with one voice, this stuff will continue. Until things change, the once dream of flying the "heavy iron" won't be realized by a lot of guys as the majors stay stagnent for years while the regionals get all of the growth.

You can keep your regional job. Been there, done that. Spent close to 6 years at one and I'd rather get into some other kind of work than be stuck in that daily grind again. 8-9 leg days, crappy hotels, horrible starting pay, etc. Good luck.