More 50 seaters at Mesaba

[WildBlue]

Oh please, people are leaving because majors are hiring. Not because of the reasons you say, atrition will continue even if salary is increased. Look at Comair, their salary is way better than the one at PCL and they are still loosing 30 to 40 captains a month.
If you think for a second that management will sign on a substantial increase on the new contract to lower atrition you are the one living in a fantasy world. Do your time and get out, regionals are never going to be career jobs, the high atrition is welcomed news to them. The younger the pilot workforce the lower the cost.

You are missing one real important factor. Half of Pinnacle's attrition is from First Officers, not Captains. Of the 35-40 who leave each month, only half are Captains. We do not have First Officers who can upgrade to Captain. We lose about a third of FOs each year. You can significantly slow the FO attrition through pay. Pinnacle FO pay for first two years is abysmal.

Agree about Captains, but not FOs

 

[Lazy8]

Speaking of staffing issues....

Thought you guys might be interested in this... The flight school I work at got a letter this week from Pinnacle Airlines asking if we would like to be an "Approved School" for preferential pilot interviews.

The minimums they listed in the letter are:

400 total
26 multi
75 instrument

g

 

[Casper]

I tend to agree with wildblue we can only FO's with 250 hours, and as for captains are fleeing to the majors yes finally the majors are hiring but before this captains were leaving anyway some to fractionals some even left the industry.
Get a grip on reality my friend this place is going down hill day after day because of MANAGEMENT.

 

[Casper]

Dumb pilot,
No offense but right now your name seems to be fitting. Please understand that every business either makes it or does not based on their initial business model as time goes bye it is reviewed and changes are to be made accordingly.
I don't disagree that the majors are hiring and this provokes atrition from the people that are able to take advantage of it, however you need to see the whole picture this is one thing that they teach you in business school.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and achieving the same results.

 

[Papps]

Oh please, people are leaving because majors are hiring. Not because of the reasons you say, atrition will continue even if salary is increased. Look at Comair, their salary is way better than the one at PCL and they are still loosing 30 to 40 captains a month.
If you think for a second that management will sign on a substantial increase on the new contract to lower atrition you are the one living in a fantasy world. Do your time and get out, regionals are never going to be career jobs, the high atrition is welcomed news to them. The younger the pilot workforce the lower the cost.

Which majors....CAL and maybe DAL and thats a trickle compaired to our attrition. We are loosing F/Os to other regionals (thats embarissing) or they are quiting the business. We are loosing captains to corporate, netjets, cargo, a couple to the majors, a few to southwest. pretty much anywhere they can go that isn't here. People are sick of getting crapped on so they are leaving to anything. The money is O.K i guess, but the work rules are crap.

 

[Golden Falcon]

Guess some things never change...I flew a CV-580 on a wet lease there in '89 and people were resigning in droves as well....most going right across the airport to purple

 

[timmay]

A big part of the problem is that airline pilots have signed contracts that people on the outside aren't willing to accept. I just read that flight school enrollment is down over 50 percent, and on top of that a 152 in Florida with an instructor is almost 100 dollars per hour. Nobody in there right mind should pay that kind of money just to get a job at a regional making 20,000 a year. Pay will come up but only because it will have to in order to fill seats.

 

[Papps]

A big part of the problem is that airline pilots have signed contracts that people on the outside aren't willing to accept. I just read that flight school enrollment is down over 50 percent, and on top of that a 152 in Florida with an instructor is almost 100 dollars per hour. Nobody in there right mind should pay that kind of money just to get a job at a regional making 20,000 a year. Pay will come up but only because it will have to in order to fill seats.

yup, and thanks to the internet people know that the right or left seat of an RJ is not "making it" I remember hearing people throw around 20,30 or even 60 dollars per hour when i was making minimum wage back in the day and thinking crap that would be insane. Funny how those numbers work out, I think i took a pay cut from min wage to work at the regionals first year.

 

[SplitBar]

Which majors....CAL and maybe DAL and thats a trickle compaired to our attrition. We are loosing F/Os to other regionals (thats embarissing) or they are quiting the business. We are loosing captains to corporate, netjets, cargo, a couple to the majors, a few to southwest. pretty much anywhere they can go that isn't here. People are sick of getting crapped on so they are leaving to anything. The money is O.K i guess, but the work rules are crap.

Here is what my best friend at CAL, former XJ pilot, just got done telling me last night. Here is his direct quote from our chat on skype.

"XJ, BY FAR, has a much better contract than CAL, except for pay rates"

Then I rubbed it in that my YTD pay is what he will make in all of 2007 :laugh:

 

[tataki]

"XJ, BY FAR, has a much better contract than CAL, except for pay rates"

I heard that from other CAL pilots too....
Sad...

So long