Hey Undies and Empty Nipple kids, wanna go to Jetblue?

[General Lee]

Press ReleaseSource: JetBlue Airways Corporation
JetBlue Announces Aviation University Gateway Program for Pilot Candidates
Wednesday January 30, 10:00 am ET


Airline Partners With Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, University of North Dakota, and Cape Air to Fill Pilot Pipeline



NEW YORK, Jan. 30, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Award-winning JetBlue Airways (NasdaqGS:JBLU - News) today announces the creation of the Aviation University Gateway, a career-planning and mentoring program designed to identify and recruit talented men and women into the professional pilot ranks. Through rigorous academic training and regional airline experience, the Aviation University Gateway creates a clearly defined career path for aspiring pilots, beginning early in an aviator's college career and culminating in the possibility of a final interview at a major airline.


JetBlue is partnering with prestigious aviation programs at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and the University of North Dakota to fill the Aviation University Gateway's pipeline with top-flight candidates who demonstrate exceptional potential as professional pilots. JetBlue is also partnering with Massachusetts-based Cape Air to be the program's first regional airline partner, giving Aviation University Gateway participants valuable flying experience prior to interviewing at JetBlue.


``Since JetBlue's inception eight years ago, we have filled our cockpits with some of the airline world's finest pilots,'' said Dean Melonas, the airline's vice president of recruitment. ``JetBlue remains a desirable choice among pilot candidates looking for an innovative and unique culture, strong growth opportunity, and competitive compensation. We are proud to be the first airline to provide the mentoring and structure for a student from early on in his or her university career, all the way through to the right seat of a JetBlue aircraft. We look forward to taking the mystery out of the pilot career path with the Aviation University Gateway program.''

``Cape Air is thrilled to be part of this exciting program,'' said Dave Bushy, Cape Air's chief operating officer. ``Airlines like ours want to attract the best employees and pilots in their formative years. We feel that Cape Air can provide some of the finest aviation experience in the world, while also flying to some beautiful destinations. Here at Cape Air we believe this program is a homerun for the industry. We look forward to serving as the first of many regional partners for JetBlue in its Aviation University Gateway program.''

``We are extremely pleased to have been asked to join this program as a university partner,'' said Dr. Tim Brady, dean of the College of Aviation at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. ``We are proud of our accredited aviation programs and know that JetBlue will gain many outstanding pilots through the Aviation University Gateway Program.''
The Aviation University Gateway path is open to Embry-Riddle or North Dakota students with high academic standing (GPA of 3.0 or above) and recommendations from their professors. It requires a successful series of interviews with JetBlue and a regional airline partner, as well as the continued enrollment in an Aviation Accreditation Board International (ABBI)-accredited aviation program. During the Gateway program, participants will intern at Cape Air (and eventually other regional airline partners) and then serve as an instructor at their respective flight school. Following that process, candidates will fly with Cape Air for at least two years and then be eligible for a final interview at JetBlue.



Bye Bye--General Lee

 

[spg2bmd]

Sweet, the shortcuts are moving up the ranks. This should be dangerous... er, good.

 

[Propsync]

This is a little irritating, but it does make some sense. Normal career path now includes 50-100k in student loans for many. Given the flight instructor/regional/major path, there are too many years not making enough money. These programs are a risk/reward for the student. Spend the money, get on with Cape and make enough to get by until your shot at the golden carrot. Imagine graduating with that much debt, paying for a car/student loans/rent/ramen while taking home 1000-1500 bucks a month.

It really ends up benefitting the school for recruitment. We should mark this thread and check back in four or so years and see what becomes of this.

 

[Longhorn]

There are not many here that are happy about this.

 

[ceo_of_the_sofa]

Wow, who's next?

 

[Tomct]

And this is bad how? What is the difference between this and someone finishing their school and moving from job to job until they finally land a "Crappy Job" at a regional.
General, just because you can't live with the fact that YOUR airline still uses one of the WORST/OUTDATED processes for pilot selection out there....why throw rocks at a glass house?

 

[Rez O. Lewshun]

There are not many here that are happy about this.

And why is that?

 

[fam62c]

Why doesn't JB just lower their minimums a little and select from the THOUSANDS of experienced CA's and FO's at regionals that would like to fly for them? I mean really, don't they require like 1000 hours in planes over 20,000 pounds? All of a sudden a few hours in a 421 is acceptable if you come from the right school? Not only is this a bad idea but it makes no sense and is unnecessary. I hope the JB pilots nip this one in the bud sooner rather than later.

 

[Rerouted]

They just did.....

Minimum Qualifications:


- 1500 hours total time in airplanes (including turbine Helicopter,

excluding Simulator, Flight Engineer time)

- 500 hours in fixed wing airplanes

- Recency of flight experience will be considered

- Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Airline Transport Pilot (ATP)

Certification

- Current FAA Class 1 Medical Certificate-

 

[CX880]

Talk about paying for a job. Not only is this a new low for the industry but also for ERAU. When did getting a GPA over 3.0 qualify a person to fly a 150 seat airliner. I can only imagine those riddle genious lining up now for the program, as long as mom and dad pay the bills everything'll be alright. Don't we have like thousands of qualified RJ drivers out there?? WOW.

 

[General Lee]

Flying single pilot into Rutland, VT at night in icing in a C402 should get them ready to do turns to FLA in an E190, no doubt. Think of the war stories....

Bye Bye--General Lee

 

[Rez O. Lewshun]

Talk about paying for a job.


Not only is this a new low for the industry but also for ERAU. When did getting a GPA over 3.0 qualify a person to fly a 150 seat airliner. .

A 3.0gpa or better shows the student has the self discipline to preapre, study and score well in testing.

Believe it or not... too many pilots get hired with out the self discipline to get thru a Part 121 training event. I'd imagine that self discipline skills are transferable to flight discipline skills. Something else that is seriously lacking in our professional pilots.


Fellas..keep in mind... it doesn't matter how a pilot became your fellow pilot. Once they are your fellow pilot that is it. It doesn't matter thier gender, race, color, nationality, education, career path or sociopolitical ideals. They are your fellow pilot.

If we think otherwise the profession suffers.

 

[CX880]

A 3.0gpa or better shows the student has the self discipline to preapre, study and score well in testing.

Believe it or not... too many pilots get hired with out the self discipline to get thru a Part 121 training event. I'd imagine that self discipline skills are transferable to flight discipline skills. Something else that is seriously lacking in our professional pilots.


Fellas..keep in mind... it doesn't matter how a pilot became your fellow pilot. Once they are your fellow pilot that is it. It doesn't matter thier gender, race, color, nationality, education, career path or sociopolitical ideals. They are your fellow pilot.

If we think otherwise the profession suffers.

What are you talking about, are you for real?

 

[say again]

How about you give me an interview now!?!?!

 

[PCL_128]

Believe it or not... too many pilots get hired with out the self discipline to get thru a Part 121 training event.

And that concern isn't a problem if you hire experienced 121 Captains from the regionals that have been through many part 121 training events already. There are plenty of experienced Captains out there already that are looking for career jobs. Going to Riddle to recruit for major airline pilots is absurd.

 

[Rez O. Lewshun]

What are you talking about, are you for real?

quite a concerning statement on your part...

And that concern isn't a problem if you hire experienced 121 Captains from the regionals that have been through many part 121 training events already. There are plenty of experienced Captains out there already that are looking for career jobs. Going to Riddle to recruit for major airline pilots is absurd.

Agreed! However it is easier to run these schemes that pay respectable wages. Managment increases wages is like french kissing grandma!!

 

[Longhorn]

PCL....BTW, I love the xenu.net signature. I just finished reading the tom cruise auto biography. Found it on a plane and thought it would be interesting. I must say, the first chapter was about his upbringing. The other chapters were about how messed up he and Scientology is......

xenu.net is an eye opener for sure.

 

[regionaltard]

Docile and compliant is the new competent and experienced.

 

[PCL_128]

PCL....BTW, I love the xenu.net signature. I just finished reading the tom cruise auto biography. Found it on a plane and thought it would be interesting. I must say, the first chapter was about his upbringing. The other chapters were about how messed up he and Scientology is......


xenu.net is an eye opener for sure.

People get freaked out thinking about cults like Heavens Gate and such, but they don't realize just how nuts the scientologists are. These people are just plain scary!

BTW, I was just cleaning out my PM box and saw your message from last week. Sorry I forgot to call you. You be around tomorrow?

 

[Longhorn]

yea, I am off until saterday.

 

[DoinTime]

Talk about paying for a job. Not only is this a new low for the industry but also for ERAU. When did getting a GPA over 3.0 qualify a person to fly a 150 seat airliner.

If you can't get a 3.0 at Riddle you are as dumb as a sack of hammers.

 

[spg2bmd]

What the hell is an "empty nipple kid". One that sucked on his mothers teat and found out it was dry cuz she was selling it on the street for 1.25 per oz. then started crying and living a depressed life eventually joining a gang trying to even up the score with anyone that he presumed may or may not have bought some milk? If so, jet blue is not the answer.

 

[Tomct]

And that concern isn't a problem if you hire experienced 121 Captains from the regionals that have been through many part 121 training events already. There are plenty of experienced Captains out there already that are looking for career jobs. Going to Riddle to recruit for major airline pilots is absurd.

Maybe they are not applying to JetBlue. If they feel that JB is not their ticket, the Blue Boys need to get their pilots from somewhere. Of course they will still have to pass all of the evals etc...The General is blowing this WAAAAAAY out of proportion...AS USUAL!

 

[On Your Six]

Give me a break. 400 hour pilots (kids) are flying A320s for Lufthansa in Germany after an intense ab initio program. You see this all over Europe and now the Middle East. Trans States is hiring young kids with something like 350 hours total and 50 hours multi into E145s. Last time I checked, an E145 was automated and high-performance like an Airbus.

The point is that automation has made the transition into airline flying a bit easier. Does that mean that these kids are ready to fly on their own - of course not. Nothing will ever replace good training and, of course, experience. Making sure that an experienced PIC is on hand and that training is reinforced and rigorous will be critical. If JB retains a very good screening process, it should be able to find high-quality candidates among the Cape Air pilots in the program who can cope effectively with the transition. JB does not need to automatically hire anyone from that program - they will screen and only take the cream of the crop among those candidates.

And I agree with another poster, flying single pilot 402s around the Cape and Upstate New York during the winter will improve anyone's skills...

 

[On Your Six]

Here's a great example of a 20 year old flying a 737 in the UK:


[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+1]Teenager pilot's Stansted flights[/SIZE][/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]14.01.08[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]Holidaymakers flying from Stansted Airport since October last year may have been unaware that the reassuring voice from the cockpit was that of a teenager. Ed Gardner, who turned 20 in December, is thought to be Britain's youngest commercial pilot. [/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]He got a job at Titan Airways the day after he received his licence and within days was crewing with his father, Bob, 55, a captain.[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]At the age of 19, he wasn't old enough to drive a bus, and in most countries he would have been too young to hire a car. Yet, despite his youth, he was cleared to take the controls of a Boeing 737, which holds up to 200 passengers, and for the past three months has been flying tourists off on their holidays.[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]Mr Gardner, from Great Dunmow, Essex, said: 'I started flying at 14 - that is the youngest you have to be to learn. I flew solo at 16 and got my private pilot's licence on my 17th birthday. My dad never pushed for me to become a pilot but as soon as I said I wanted to do it he was pleased.'[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]He was so keen on flying he was able to pilot an aircraft before he started learning to drive a car. [/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]After taking his A-levels, he went to the Metropolitan University in London for his air transport pilot's licence written exams, and passed first time. He then went on to Stapleford Flight Centre for instrument rating, another pilot's training course and then Boeing 737 training.[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]He received his licence on October 5, and the next day he was training for his job as a first officer with the Stansted Airport based charter airline. His first job with Titan Airways was flying mail between Stansted and Exeter. The first passenger flight he piloted was to Rostock in Germany. [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]He said: 'I was excited but you don't really get to interact with the passengers. [/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]As first officer you do pretty much the same as the captain except you can't taxi on the runway. Of course, the captain is in charge overall but if they fly to Malaga, for example, you get to fly the plane back.'[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]Mr Gardner, who has just celebrated his 20th birthday and now regularly flies to the Continent and Africa, played down his achievement at such a young age. He said: 'I think I just came along at the right time.' He added that he had not told his passengers how young he was.[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]Rob Giles, the 737 fleet manager for Titan Airways, said: 'It is not unheard of at 21 or 22 but most people do something else and then come to flying. Ed is a very competent pilot and ticked all the boxes. It's good getting youngsters into the company - we need some new blood.'[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]Statistics from the Civil Aviation Authority for 2004 and 2005 show no teenagers held a commercial pilot's licence. A spokesman for the CAA said that although some 19-year-olds may qualify to fly passenger jets, they may not be get a job until they were older.[/SIZE][/FONT]

 

[PCL_128]

Maybe they are not applying to JetBlue. If they feel that JB is not their ticket, the Blue Boys need to get their pilots from somewhere.

If they're having trouble getting experienced pilots to apply, then they need to raise EMB pay, get a real B-fund retirement plan, and get rid of those insulting five year employment contracts. Creating some program with Humpty-Diddle while there are still thousands of qualified RJ Captains out there is ridiculous.

 

[Rez O. Lewshun]

A couple of comments were made on how the automation has made this job easier...

I disagree. There are still accidnets, incidents and events were pilots screw up with the automation.

Interfacing the automation with high density ATC, MEL's, diverse crews, nasty weather, and multi-legs.. etc...still makes this a challenging job.

Line flying is a job of endurance. A four day trip with 4-5 legs requires automation. (You've heard the complaining when the autoflight is MEL'ed)

the point.... don't sell ourselves short...




on another note:

If they're having trouble getting experienced pilots to apply, then they need to raise EMB pay, get a real B-fund retirement plan, and get rid of those insulting five year employment contracts. Creating some program with Humpty-Diddle while there are still thousands of qualified RJ Captains out there is ridiculous.

Agreed! Probably not going to happen without the JBPA!! Your logic also applies to UAL, NWA and CAL, and they've got ALPA!!!

Regards,

Sloppy Seconds!

 

[John Pennekamp]

"Undies and empty nipples", General? What the hell does that mean? Have you lost it?

 

[Oakum_Boy]

Give me a break. 400 hour pilots (kids) are flying A320s for Lufthansa in Germany after an intense ab initio program. You see this all over Europe and now the Middle East. Trans States is hiring young kids with something like 350 hours total and 50 hours multi into E145s. Last time I checked, an E145 was automated and high-performance like an Airbus.

I hate to tell you this, but Embry Riddle, Cape Air and Jet Blue's "screening" process doesn't come close to what a Lufthansa pilot goes thru to get hired as an ab-initio student. You'll disagree, but the only screening Riddle is doing is a bank account one. The rest? Well...

 

[Papps]

Jetblue just wants a piece of the "your actually going to pay me to fly?" market of stupid kids that will do anything to be in an airline cockpit (for the first job of their life). This is a career that is already in the crapper, who cares, its just one more thing.