Welcome to Flightinfo.com

  • Register now and join the discussion
  • Friendliest aviation Ccmmunity on the web
  • Modern site for PC's, Phones, Tablets - no 3rd party apps required
  • Ask questions, help others, promote aviation
  • Share the passion for aviation
  • Invite everyone to Flightinfo.com and let's have fun

Senior Discount at Flexjet?

Welcome to Flightinfo.com

  • Register now and join the discussion
  • Modern secure site, no 3rd party apps required
  • Invite your friends
  • Share the passion of aviation
  • Friendliest aviation community on the web

Dooker

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 19, 2007
Posts
344
I just got an auto-generated email asking me to congratulate one of my distant LinkeIn connections for starting a new job as a first officer at Flexjet.

When I looked at his profile, I saw that he graduated college in 1970.

Wow. Just ... wow.
 
I just got an auto-generated email asking me to congratulate one of my distant LinkeIn connections for starting a new job as a first officer at Flexjet.

When I looked at his profile, I saw that he graduated college in 1970.

Wow. Just ... wow.
The stock lockers will be supplied with fresh tennis balls for the newhire walkers.
 
The stock lockers will be supplied with fresh tennis balls for the newhire walkers.

Squawk all jabbing aside I think we can both agree Flexjet will not be getting any desirable candidates for a very long time if not forever. Here's what our hiring will look like:

1.) We'll get young inexperienced candidates looking to build enough time to qualify for 121. Any candidate under 35 who is smart enough to take a broad view of aviation won't be caught working 30 years without a union.

2.) We'll get mid-age rejects who couldn't get another job or are attracted only by money and do not value QOL. Yeah, those guys are always fun. Not.

3.) Geezers and retirees who either can't hang it up due to a lack of home life or mismanaged their money so irresponsibly they can't afford to hang it up. Once again, painful to fly with.

The longterm repercussions to our pilot group are tremendous. Sure the business (DAC more importantly than Flexjet) will make money, Kenn will capitalize on his coup with a certain segment of owners and as long as we can avoid a fatality (doubtful given the above) investors (and owners) will remain invested. But the pilot group will suffer, more importantly pilots themselves will suffer. Mark my words in 10 years the industry will speak of you the same way you would often speak of FLOPS pilots back in the day.

Are you not at all curious why DAC had to buy a new name with a certain amount of credibility instead of fix the issues at Options? Has it occurred to you it's because they have no desire to fix anything? The new name gives them at least a decade of great brand recognition but sooner or later chickens always come home to roost.

You can deny the exodus all you want but come fall we are up a creek. We are already hurting but summer is masking the blow. It's crazy we are flying 5 and 6 leg days as a routine in late June.

I'm done arguing. The realization of just exactly how much of a collasal mistake voting out the union instead of fixing it was will happen soon enough.

Anyone I know with any sense of self worth is making an exit plan. You yourself admitted your new type was part of your own exit plan but now you are drinking Kool Aid? I don’t buy it.

In the grand scheme of things not being unioned hurts only one group - the pilots. Woe to you and your group when the majority realizes that fact.

All the vote really did was solidify Flexjet's place as a bottom feeder and you know it. Otherwise you wouldn't have made the joke above.
 
Setting aside the DAC mgt style/union debate for a second and just focusing on the realities of the current hiring climate is enough to realize that the fracs are in trouble with regard to recruiting.

There will always be desirable candidates who show up and want to stay because of where they live, a strong desire to do corporate style flying or previous jobs and retirements providing the financial freedom to accept lesser compensation, benefits and QOL for whatever reason they use to follow the fractional lifestyle. But that well will run close to dry now that the lost decade is over.

All the airlines need a lot of pilots, and there’s 2-3 based at a town near you unless you really live deep in the sticks ( and that’s not to say some deepstick places aren’t fantastic places to live).

The fracs could raise compensation, bring retirements up to current direct contribution standards and a host of other things, but it’s still a model that is most efficient running 6-8 days at a time on the road, and doing 5-6 legs a day given current staffing levels at most of the outfits. And it’s still a lot of time spent doing things in airplanes (cleaning, stocking, lavs etc.) that no one dreamed about in flight school.

It will be interesting to watch how the industry reacts over the next decade or so. The uber wealthy will always want their air limos and service to exotic destinations or airports that skip the major airport hustle and bustle. How fractional will attract candidates to do the flying is another matter.

Stepping slightly back on to the union/no union bit....how NJ’s and DAC attack the problem will be something worth noting.
 
Squawk all jabbing aside I think we can both agree Flexjet will not be getting any desirable candidates for a very long time if not forever. Here's what our hiring will look like:

1.) We'll get young inexperienced candidates looking to build enough time to qualify for 121. Any candidate under 35 who is smart enough to take a broad view of aviation won't be caught working 30 years without a union.

2.) We'll get mid-age rejects who couldn't get another job or are attracted only by money and do not value QOL. Yeah, those guys are always fun. Not.

3.) Geezers and retirees who either can't hang it up due to a lack of home life or mismanaged their money so irresponsibly they can't afford to hang it up. Once again, painful to fly with.

The longterm repercussions to our pilot group are tremendous. Sure the business (DAC more importantly than Flexjet) will make money, Kenn will capitalize on his coup with a certain segment of owners and as long as we can avoid a fatality (doubtful given the above) investors (and owners) will remain invested. But the pilot group will suffer, more importantly pilots themselves will suffer. Mark my words in 10 years the industry will speak of you the same way you would often speak of FLOPS pilots back in the day.

Are you not at all curious why DAC had to buy a new name with a certain amount of credibility instead of fix the issues at Options? Has it occurred to you it's because they have no desire to fix anything? The new name gives them at least a decade of great brand recognition but sooner or later chickens always come home to roost.

You can deny the exodus all you want but come fall we are up a creek. We are already hurting but summer is masking the blow. It's crazy we are flying 5 and 6 leg days as a routine in late June.

I'm done arguing. The realization of just exactly how much of a collasal mistake voting out the union instead of fixing it was will happen soon enough.

Anyone I know with any sense of self worth is making an exit plan. You yourself admitted your new type was part of your own exit plan but now you are drinking Kool Aid? I don’t buy it.

In the grand scheme of things not being unioned hurts only one group - the pilots. Woe to you and your group when the majority realizes that fact.

All the vote really did was solidify Flexjet's place as a bottom feeder and you know it. Otherwise you wouldn't have made the joke above.

First, big mistake in identity. I never once said any training at FJ was part of an “exit plan”. Never was in the back of anyone’s truck or anywhere near it. Why are you and DirtyBeech always trying to dox people in here? And, Flexjet is no bottom feeder and never will be.

Second, you admit the Union needed “fixing”. You are right about that! FJ pilots shed a broken union that had perfected mismanagement and mistrust.

Third, your predictions are fogged by discontent. You are a glass half empty guy. How can you predict the future of this industry from your worm’s eye view of a complete outsider from strategic market intelligence. You don’t and won’t EVER sit at that table. You never account for industry consolidation which probably has to happen. An increasing cost structure could cause contraction and right-sizing. As cost goes up, the private air experience becomes more rarified. Your linear thinking is not MBA worthy.

Fourth, your screen name is all wrong. It should be changed to Chicken Little, or even better, Eeyore, the gloomy, pessimistic jackass.
 
Is anyone else going to the dinner tonight? I'm hoping they clarify the SLI and red label expansion. But I'm going to try to make notes on the whole presentation. Stay tuned...
 

Latest resources

Back
Top