High Flying Pilots, Lower Paying Jobs: Article

[T1bubba]

http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/bal-bz.pilotjobs20jun20,0,3155070.story?coll=bal-business-headlines

Apparently this is news?

 

[80drvr]

http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/bal-bz.pilotjobs20jun20,0,3155070.story?coll=bal-business-headlines

Apparently this is news?

Typical media BS. I've seen the W2 of an 11 year SWA friend (flying about 85/mo) and it's about 45% higher than the pay mentioned in the article. I guess they based all their numbers on Air Inc data, which I never thought was very accurate by the time they extended it out to yearly salaries.

 

[Resume Writer]

"More than 4,000 pilot jobs have been created in the first five months of this year, almost as many as in all of 2003 -- the worst year for pilot employment in more than a decade, according to AIR Inc."

Really? Can anyone tell me where these 4,000 jobs have been created? Southwest is hiring the most (I believe) at 400 (or more) for this year. How many for AWA (about 160??) Anyone else have more accurate numbers??

If this is so, then how come there are still over 9,000 pilots on furlough?

I am just asking here. Forgive my ignorance...

Kathy

 

[Jeff Helgeson]

It was a good article

I read it today on my commute from BWI to DEN. (I picked up a free SUN outside of Baggage Claim by the employee bus drop-off.)

There appear to be some facts that are not correct, but the overall article did a good job of explaining what many furloughed pilots from the majors have gone through. Keep in mind it is a Baltimore paper and it shadowed a former USAir pilot that now flies for USA 3000 out of BWI. It didn't mention that Dawn flew the Airbus and that USA 3000 has benefited from having pilots available with experience in type.

My story is very much the same, TWA to AA furloughed and unemployeed for almost six months and now flying Captain on internation on the MD80 with over 5000 hours in type, making about 65% of what I was making as a domestic F/O.

It was a good local interest story. I can see why it wouldn't seem news worthy to T1BUBBA. You were probably hired to SWA right out of the military and are most likely a commutter out of BWI, one of the SWA's junior bases. I just hope you got one of the free newspapers. If you paid for it, you probably won't be upgrading soon.

I think the general public may find the article interesting as they see the airline landscape change in the Baltimore/Washington area.

 

[T1bubba]

It was a good local interest story. I can see why it wouldn't seem news worthy to T1BUBBA. You were probably hired to SWA right out of the military and are most likely a commutter out of BWI, one of the SWA's junior bases. I just hope you got one of the free newspapers. If you paid for it, you probably won't be upgrading soon.

I think the general public may find the article interesting as they see the airline landscape change in the Baltimore/Washington area.

I just thought the "end of the legacy carriers/rise of the LCCs" theme had been beaten to death. The Sun mentions US's decline and SWA's rise at BWI in almost ever airline/airport article it reports.

BTW, I live in Baltimore. And the Sun is free online every day, no matter where I am!

T1

 

[80drvr]

I just thought the "end of the legacy carriers/rise of the LCCs" theme had been beaten to death. The Sun mentions US's decline and SWA's rise at BWI in almost ever airline/airport article it reports.

BTW, I live in Baltimore. And the Sun is free online every day, no matter where I am!

T1

I've got to agree with you there. The media doesn't seem to grasp this business. If the LCC's run all of the legacy network carriers out of business as they purport, then they will ultimately become the legacy carriers of the future and will be ripe for picking by startups with new fuel efficient fleets and junior low cost labor. Or maybe the media is right and we'll go this airline renewal cycle every 15 years or so. I hope they're wrong for all our sakes.

 

[BRA]

i think they added all the regional airline hiring to the 2004 number. Eagle, mesa, coex, asa. Even just a year ago regional airline hiring was extremely slow.

 

[Resume Writer]

i think they added all the regional airline hiring to the 2004 number. Eagle, mesa, coex, asa. Even just a year ago regional airline hiring was extremely slow.

Even with that, I still do not see how the numbers are 4000. Maybe I am wrong, but 4000 positions since the beginning of the year is a hefty number. That would mean about 800 or so pilots would have to be hired each month by all the carriers.

Things that make you go hmmmm...

Kathy

 

[TUPAK]

"So most senior pilots on furlough from major carriers such as United Airlines or Delta Air Lines prefer not to start over, Mazor said. Rather, they harbor hope they can return to their carriers once openings are generated from growth or retirements."

"Many of the 9,700 pilots on furlough have taken non-flying jobs elsewhere, industry experts say. That's about 11 percent of all licensed commercial pilots."

"The jobs [available] are not at all at the best companies, as far as pilots are concerned. They don't have the bigger planes. Many of those companies --Delta, United, American, Northwest and Continental -- all still have pilots on furlough."

The writer explains that this is why that you still have furloughed pilots out there. As far as the 4000 number, I'm not sure where she got the number other than the AIR Inc propaganda machine probably or cumulative hirings from LCCs, regionals, and smaller companies that most have never heard of such as Allegiant Air, Arrow Air, Carribean Sun Airlines, Farwest Airlines, etc.....

Just my thoughts...

 

[STL717]

Link to Air,Inc. job numbers as of May 2004


http://www.jet-jobs.com/press%20releases/06.10.04.html