regionals owned by majors

[highflying]

Is it true that if you work for a commuter that is owned or has a contract with a Major that you would like to maybe work for someday, then more than likely they wont hire you. IE:if you work for ASA then Delta wont hire you or Eagle then American (if they where hiring) wont hire you. I have heard that they wont because it is like cutting their legs out from under them. What do you all think.

 

[eagleatr]

If you are and Eagle pilot, it was almost unheard of to be hired by AA (when they were hiring). They few people that got hired were either very well connected, or children of AA pilots.

 

[regionalcap]

Many ASA pilots have gone to work for Delta.

 

[CF34-3B1]

Delta hired many, many ASA pilots.

 

[FR8mastr]

If you work for US air WO you would have a better chance of hitting the lottery than being hired by them, That is assuming you catch the once every 25 year hireing cycles

 

[NDPILOT]

A reason i've heard AA does not hire Eagle as often as some people might like is that AMR pays for the pilot training twice, once for eagle, once for AA.

Anyone else heard anything, or have any thoughts? ex. eagle/aa people??

Thanks

 

[upndsky]

I can't speak from an insider's perspective, but an Eagle Saab captain I know was hired by AA a few months before 9/11. He'd been there +/-10 years and was a check airman. He was ready to move to the ERJ to benefit from the flowthrough when AA called. I haven't spoken to him since 9/11 and I'm sure he was furloughed. Perhaps he's back at Eagle.

 

[FR8mastr]

Yea I have heard that train twice crap form U also, but lets examine this from the US air perspective: U hired about 1000 guys a few years back. about 500 or so from MEsa and about 10 from ALG. ALG during this same time lost about 150 guys (above me) to other airlines. so just in our little corner of the world they had to train 150 guys twice anyway. If you add the other 2 WO's we are in the same area as the Mesa pilots hired at airways at around 500. If they would have taken 500 WO guys to Mainline instead of blacklisting them it would have done wonders for moral and not cost the company 1 cent extra. But for some reason other than that they just wont take WO pilots

 

[scotts]

At Coex you are governed by the "FTA", which means that you can't apply at CAL and have to wait for the flow-through, or go to another carrier. I have also heard the "train twice" argument.

As far as the FTA here at Coex, there is some controversy about when it expires, depending on your viewpoint (pilot or management). ALPA maintains that the FTA won't expire until the sunset date of 2004, even after CAL sells off it's remaining 53% ownership in Express. Management is steadfastly maintaining that when the divestiture happens, the FTA will end. The lockout period for CAL to sell is rapidly coming to a close (end of October, I think) and most think that they will indeed sell off their remaining shares. So, it should be an interesting showdown between ALPA and management.

All in all, my opinion (everyone has one, don't they?) is that the FTA was designed for the majority of pilots on property when it was signed, and is of little benefit to anyone hired after that. Some will maintain that it benefitted all of the pilots through increased movement in seniority. I personally don't think that movement up in seniority would have been much different if there had been no FTA. Why, you ask? I am of the mind that the average Joe pilot would be more motivated to get hired elsewhere if there was no FTA to begin with. After all, many of the pilots at Express will tell you that they consider Express to be a stepping-stone to a major. If you knew that your only chance to move to a major is to prep yourself and pursue it aggresively don't you think that an equivalent movement up in seniority would occur anyway? That scenario doesn't apply to me (over 40 and expect to retire here), but I understand the rationale.

Just my 2 cents.

Fraternally,

Scott Sherfey
ERJ FO furloughed Nov. 1st 2001

 

[MartinFierro]

The whole notion of not hiring from your wholly-owned regionals so you don't have to train the same person twice is stupid. Too bad many people in management can't seem to figure this out.

If you only hire from other airlines' regionals, and they do the same, you STILL will have to train someone to replace the regional pilot at your wholly-owned who left to go to another airline. So OK instead of training the same person twice, you train 2 different people once. Where's the difference?