Hey gang,
Two tidbits, if anyone out there happens to be interested...
First, talked with one of the chief pilots this morning, and he mentioned that the activations of the reserve units are coming fast & furious. Twenty pilots turned in activation paperwork late in the week, and another five just got word that their unit got activated, and they're all going. The CP mentioned that he'd sent Crummy a memo suggesting that it might be worth relooking the 18 March class in light of all the activations. Of course, that's about four or five steps short of any decision, but it's interesting to hear a chief pilot suggest that.
Second, I took a look at the April vacancy bid results and the corresponding seniority lists. What follows is based on looking at pilot Seniority Numbers, NOT employee numbers. The employee numbers run consecutively for every person SWA hires, pilot & everybody else, and the distribution of pilots among the employee numbers isn't necessarily uniform. Seniority numbers, on the other hand, are assigned consecutively to each PILOT hired. At the bottom end of the scale, they are a pretty good indication of the number of pilots between two particular guys -- the only holes are guys who have left, and that isn't too many in the last couple years of hiring. The further you go up the list, the more holes there are, as guys retire, etc. But the numbers below will show something about how the bases stand relative to each other at the bottom of the seniority list.
I looked at the seniority of the bottom F/O at each base. Anybody above this pilot COULD be in that base if he wanted to be, those below this pilot CAN NOT be there, yet. Based on that criteria, the most senior base is, no surprise, DAL. In descending order of "bottom pilot seniority," this whole list is:
DAL
MCO
MDW
BWI
HOU
PHX
OAK (I know, big surprise here!)
Going from the most junior pilot in the system right now (i.e. assigned to a base -- the guys who have yet to finish IOE are NOT yet on the April list -- I think these numbers include only the top half of the early January class), there are 422 F/O's between him and the bottom F/O in DAL (who can hold ANY base he likes).
That 422 breaks down as follows:
DAL - 311 - MCO
MCO - 40 - MDW
MDW - 44 - BWI
BWI - 12 - HOU
HOU - 5 - PHX
PHX - 10 - OAK
So, there are 311 F/O's who can hold MCO who can't yet hold Dallas; there are 40 who can hold MDW but not MCO, etc. Of course, not all of these 40 guys ARE in MDW, nor would all of those 40 BID for MCO; that's just the approximate "wait" from being able to hold one base until you can hold the next one. It's all based on pilots above & below you, not "time with the company," obviously. The "baby" of one class is only 1 number senior to the "grandpa" of the next class, regardless of how long the wait is before that next class starts.
Interestingly, the bottom pilot in each of PHX, HOU, and BWI all have the same class date -- the span of seniority numbers is all within the same class (Jul 02).
Disclaimers: this is a snapshot of a moment in time, and the seniority list will look slightly different by the time the poolies (or even the newhires in class right now) show up on it. In fact, it will even look minutely different by the time you get to April, since by then the guys who are just now completing IOE will be assigned to bases. BUT, this does reflect the results of the massive shift in pilots from MDW to BWI & MCO, so it may be somewhat indicative of what the near future will hold.
Also, the relative seniority of the guys at the bottom of the list isn't necessarily the same as guys further up the list. For instance, I (somewhere in the 311 who can hold MCO but not DAL) would have notably better seniority in MDW than in PHX, but the bottom guy in MDW would have better seniority if he was in PHX instead (about 22 people under him in PHX, versus being bottom man in MDW).
So, I'll throw this out for what it's worth. Interestingly, the move from OAK to PHX/HOU/BWI can come fairly quickly right now -- within about one or two classes of guys hitting the line behind you. Of course, for some guys, that process can take several months, while for others it can happen (in the best case) in the same month that you hit the line.
Hope this is interesting to somebody out there!
cheers,
snoopy
Two tidbits, if anyone out there happens to be interested...
First, talked with one of the chief pilots this morning, and he mentioned that the activations of the reserve units are coming fast & furious. Twenty pilots turned in activation paperwork late in the week, and another five just got word that their unit got activated, and they're all going. The CP mentioned that he'd sent Crummy a memo suggesting that it might be worth relooking the 18 March class in light of all the activations. Of course, that's about four or five steps short of any decision, but it's interesting to hear a chief pilot suggest that.
Second, I took a look at the April vacancy bid results and the corresponding seniority lists. What follows is based on looking at pilot Seniority Numbers, NOT employee numbers. The employee numbers run consecutively for every person SWA hires, pilot & everybody else, and the distribution of pilots among the employee numbers isn't necessarily uniform. Seniority numbers, on the other hand, are assigned consecutively to each PILOT hired. At the bottom end of the scale, they are a pretty good indication of the number of pilots between two particular guys -- the only holes are guys who have left, and that isn't too many in the last couple years of hiring. The further you go up the list, the more holes there are, as guys retire, etc. But the numbers below will show something about how the bases stand relative to each other at the bottom of the seniority list.
I looked at the seniority of the bottom F/O at each base. Anybody above this pilot COULD be in that base if he wanted to be, those below this pilot CAN NOT be there, yet. Based on that criteria, the most senior base is, no surprise, DAL. In descending order of "bottom pilot seniority," this whole list is:
DAL
MCO
MDW
BWI
HOU
PHX
OAK (I know, big surprise here!)
Going from the most junior pilot in the system right now (i.e. assigned to a base -- the guys who have yet to finish IOE are NOT yet on the April list -- I think these numbers include only the top half of the early January class), there are 422 F/O's between him and the bottom F/O in DAL (who can hold ANY base he likes).
That 422 breaks down as follows:
DAL - 311 - MCO
MCO - 40 - MDW
MDW - 44 - BWI
BWI - 12 - HOU
HOU - 5 - PHX
PHX - 10 - OAK
So, there are 311 F/O's who can hold MCO who can't yet hold Dallas; there are 40 who can hold MDW but not MCO, etc. Of course, not all of these 40 guys ARE in MDW, nor would all of those 40 BID for MCO; that's just the approximate "wait" from being able to hold one base until you can hold the next one. It's all based on pilots above & below you, not "time with the company," obviously. The "baby" of one class is only 1 number senior to the "grandpa" of the next class, regardless of how long the wait is before that next class starts.
Interestingly, the bottom pilot in each of PHX, HOU, and BWI all have the same class date -- the span of seniority numbers is all within the same class (Jul 02).
Disclaimers: this is a snapshot of a moment in time, and the seniority list will look slightly different by the time the poolies (or even the newhires in class right now) show up on it. In fact, it will even look minutely different by the time you get to April, since by then the guys who are just now completing IOE will be assigned to bases. BUT, this does reflect the results of the massive shift in pilots from MDW to BWI & MCO, so it may be somewhat indicative of what the near future will hold.
Also, the relative seniority of the guys at the bottom of the list isn't necessarily the same as guys further up the list. For instance, I (somewhere in the 311 who can hold MCO but not DAL) would have notably better seniority in MDW than in PHX, but the bottom guy in MDW would have better seniority if he was in PHX instead (about 22 people under him in PHX, versus being bottom man in MDW).
So, I'll throw this out for what it's worth. Interestingly, the move from OAK to PHX/HOU/BWI can come fairly quickly right now -- within about one or two classes of guys hitting the line behind you. Of course, for some guys, that process can take several months, while for others it can happen (in the best case) in the same month that you hit the line.
Hope this is interesting to somebody out there!
cheers,
snoopy
