As of the meeting today, no word on when classes will start. My bet is that it will be quite soon, sometime in January...just a guess, but the company's short-term plans are lofty at this point.
I heard from someone in the training dept, they are planning a class for the first week of Jan.
Best guess is it will be about 10, they really can't handle a class much bigger than that.
Ok, heard some more info today.
IA will hire about 40 new pilots.
Class in Jan and Feb, and probably Mar and April if they can keep up with the training.
At least 2 more planes on-line by March 1.
Get ready to dry off.
A recent article from Pacific Business News...notice the part about Island Air...
Lawmakers, Hawaiian Airlines talk, but fares don't change
Neighbor island lawmakers called their talks last week with Hawaiian Airlines disappointing as the airline refused to lower fares.
"Hawaiian recently has announced record profits and yet the airline is keeping air fares up," said Rep. Jerry Chang, chairman of the House Tourism Committee.
The lawmakers met with Aloha Airlines earlier and obtained a $59 fare for frequent flyers who book tickets online.
Hawaiian said it was still evaluating Aloha's fare.
Lawmakers also met with the new management team of Aloha Island Air, which Aloha Airgroup sold recently. The new owners plan to buy five new aircraft and add 50 flight segments over the next three months.
"With cutbacks in airline schedules out of Hilo, Aloha Island Air is stepping in," said Rep. Eric Hamakawa, D-S. Hilo-Mountain View.
Will Island Air be hiring street captains to help with this expansion?
It's inevitable they will have to continue hiring into the left seat unless they lower the upgrade minimums for Captain. There simply are not enough F/O's with enough hours to meet the minimums to fill the slots that will be available over the next six months. Even if they did lower the minimums some (and the company says they won't), I'm guessing there would still be a pretty sizable gap there.
no the contract between the pilots and the company has NOT been signed. there was a TA but now there is evidence the company was negotiating in bad faith and the union will be meeting with the company to get a new TA.
So far I have met four pilots in the 1/5 class at WP. 3 of them are former HAL pilots, and one from Air Samoa. (Please forgive the plug, but: If anyone else out there is in the class and wants to get a head start, I have a Dash-8 study guide CD-ROM that goes over the systems and emergency memory items. I add some additional files for Island Air pilots. http://www.dashflash.com)
As for Captain Hires, I have flown with a few F.O.s recently who have been 'cross-trained'. Basically the company is requiring street hire captains to spend 30 days in the right seat prior to moving into the left seat. Upon initial training they are being typed in the Dash-8.
Street hire min. for captains is supposedly 3000 hours with 750 multi, and for current employees, its 1 year of service, 500 dash-8, 2500 total.
Training is going to be fast and furious over the next months, so I hope you guys have been waiting a long time get called. Being a 'gently' squeaky wheel doesn't hurt. Stopping into H.R./ Flight ops with a box of donuts or some other social gift doesn't hurt. It worked for me, anyway . . .
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