Hawaiian

[jmt]

So what's the latest status on hiring at Hawaiian? With the first airbus coming next month, you would think they would start calling people...being swimming for a while...

 

[HAL]

The last round of hiring was for the first two Airbus arrivals. The next plane isn't due until November. However since our new contract specifies a 270-day activation for vacancy bids, and that third A330 is less than 270 days away, they may run into trouble. I'd expect a bid out soon for that.

It's also possible that they're waiting to hear on the Haneda application too. If we get that it'll mean additional hiring because of the need to staff those with 3 pilots. If that's the reason then they may be shooting themselves in the foot, because they could really get slammed with training timing, and not have enough people for the third airbus. Personally, I think they should just run more vacancy bids, but then that would 'cost them money'.

The third unknown is retirements. I've heard of a few 60+ guys going out without notice recently, and it seems to be accelerating. I don't think many of our guys are staying past 62 so we should see a bunch going out within the next few months.

They are offering surfer leaves this month (50% pay & keep longevity and benefits), but we're horribly understaffed in certain positions, so it's obvious they're trying to cut staffing to the bone. Any unusual events or a group of guys retiring without notice will really put them in a bind.

So the upshot is that I'd expect another round of hiring sooner rather than later.

HAL

 

[Ainokea]

Anyone know if calls were made yet?

 

[Junkflyer]

New bid shows 11 new hires, but does not take effect until January. Seems to be on the low side. Most are guessing another bid will come out before then.

 

[808pilot]

bump... HAL or dan roman... insight?

 

[HAL]

Not much insight from here... I'm guessing they are keeping staffing at a minimum for now. We have two routes into Maui starting up this summer - SAN-OGG and OAK-OGG, and they're both already staffed for. Those extra pilots will fly the HND trips later this year, so the only thing they're staffing for on this bid is the 3rd Airbus, scheduled to arrive in November. And since they haven't announced any Airbus flying other than LAX, they only need the additional 5 crews for that plane. Once they announce additional flying, especially long-range flying, there should be additional bids. Also, we have the 4th plane coming in February '11, so there's even more people needed for that one. I can see where they were going on this bid though, since they don't need the additional people beyond these 11 until next year, there's no reason to hire them now.

HAL