SWA/AAI and the flight deck jumpseat

[Bob Dylan]

What demographics? Why don't you just spit out what you want to say. Let's hear it. Go Charlie Sheen on us. Tell us about your supposed superiority. Just go heavy on the blood, hookers and coke . . . . keep it interesting.

Hmm, did anyone ever leave AirTran for Southwest? Did anyone ever leave Southwest to go to AirTran?

 

[miles otoole]

Did anyone ever leave Southwest to go to AirTran?

The many without college degrees weren't qualified.

 

[Lear70]

Not trying to get between you two kiddos but I THINK what he's saying is that the Airtran pilot group is, on average, 10 YEARS younger than WN.

A lot of it (in the late 90's to early 2000 range years) was that AirTran didn't have a great reputation through the 90's, and was considered a stepping stone airline, so we got a lot of younger pilots who either just met the minimums or were only slightly above it (this was the hiring boom for many other airlines as well, and the older, more highly-experienced pilots were getting snapped up by the Delta's, United's, and SWA of course).

Contract 2000 improved pay and work rules to a degree where it could be a career airline (especially after all the bankruptcies post-9/11 brought SNB wages down), AirTran had been taking all our 717 deliveries and was just starting to gear up heavy on the 737 deliveries, guys started upgrading in 4-5 years, and only THEN did it start getting the attention of the highly experienced pilots (and correspondingly older ages). By about 2004-2005 the resume stack was thick with the same people who were applying to SWA, Delta, NWA, CAL, etc., across all age groups, and AirTran was able to pick and choose.

About that time it looks like HR started taking a much larger cross-section of age groups, and was mixing the age groups so you wouldn't have a mass bulk of retirements all at the same time, which is why in the last 5 years you've seen Delta early retirees and late 20-somethings fresh out of the regionals and just about everything in between, although I believe the average class age is 35 or so the last couple years.

This is why nearly the entire bottom 50% of our Captain seniority list is in their early 40's / mid- to late- 30's. Couldn't tell you how often my first 2 years here I flew with a CA who was younger than me with about half my total time and experience. It's just a function of who had been hired in the last couple years before the big growth spurt in the late 90's. Same thing actually happened at SWA about 20-25 years ago, if you look at your demographics, although those guys are all in their mid- to late 50's now and comprise most of your CA list.

In short, I don't think it's that AAI HR deliberately hires younger (I actually think they look for a good cross-section for ages, as much as they say they don't take it into account, you know how life really works for EEOC stuff). I think you're just seeing the sequence of events of how AAI staffed back when it was tough to get applicants in the late 90's to just pre-9/11.

That will/should/could factor into the whole career expectation thingy.

Gup

Absolutely. You can't argue that your retirement numbers are dramatically higher than ours and that the majority of our pilots will have, on average, 5-7 more years of working productivity than yours. It's just simple math, and I'm sure will factor into the equation, but again, that's above my pay grade.

 

[Ty Webb]

Hmm, did anyone ever leave AirTran for Southwest? Did anyone ever leave Southwest to go to AirTran?

No one cares . . . . except you!

Mr. Irrelevant. :laugh:

 

[ivauir]

What demographics? Why don't you just spit out what you want to say. Let's hear it. Go Charlie Sheen on us. Tell us about your supposed superiority. Just go heavy on the blood, hookers and coke . . . . keep it interesting.

Ty,

Your hostility is misplaced, and unwelcome. You will not goad me into responding in kind, if you can't be civil you can continue your "dialog" with Bob and the rest of the usual suspects.

To recap, here is YOUR quote that began this "conversation":

Don't have to wait to be an old fart to enjoy your seniority at AAI. Hell, we had some make CA before they were 30. :laugh:

Southwest doesn't have many make upgrade before they are thirty, and that is not a recent phenomena. As Gup points out we are a markedly older group, and the differing ages of the company's don't explain the difference. I'm just curious how you explain that difference.

 

[Tripower455]

The many without college degrees weren't qualified.

Not that it mattered, since it was a huge downgrade, career wise, but thanks for playing!

 

[Ty Webb]

Ty,

Your hostility is misplaced, and unwelcome. You will not goad me into responding in kind, if you can't be civil you can continue your "dialog" with Bob and the rest of the usual suspects.

To recap, here is YOUR quote that began this "conversation":



Southwest doesn't have many make upgrade before they are thirty, and that is not a recent phenomena. As Gup points out we are a markedly older group, and the differing ages of the company's don't explain the difference. I'm just curious how you explain that difference.

We don't have many, but we have some.

The difference isn't in the employee groups, but in the perspective of the beholder.

You want to seize any little crumb, and hold it over your head like some sort of trophy. It's laughable.

"SEE! They had some guys make Captain by 30!!!!!!"

Nobody cares. Statistical aberrations are irrelevant. It's like the two or three fools on here shrieking with delight because three alleged AirTran FO's were jokingly begging to be bought and stapled on an anonymous message board one drunken night during the height of contract negotiations. . . . . .

Again, nobody cares, but you. Enjoy. It's all yours, big guy. :laugh:

 

[Bob Dylan]

A lot of pilots didn't apply to AirTran, Spirit or other lower tier airlines except as a stepping stone or last resort airline job. I doubt that anyone considered Southwest that type of job.

I recall AirTran pilots on this very forum literally begging to be bought and stapled to Southwest. I guess all the trannies already forgot about that.

 

[Bob Dylan]

Double post.

Ty's a loozer.

 

[jball2]

FYI- Our (SWA) youngest CA will be 35 in Nov. There are only 42 captains in their 30s.