Why hire military over your competition?

[labbats]

I'm curious why all of the majors continue to hire almost exclusively military while the LCCs like JetBlue, Allegiant, Virgin America and Spirit get one or two spots a month if any.

If I were in charge of a major airline I would want people who have already flown my same types of aircraft and by the simple fact of hiring them would hurt my competition.

LCCs are forced to hire fresh and pay to train replacements of those who go to the majors. You'd have newhires that are already consolidated and fully experienced.

What am I missing?

 

[kf4amu]

Military guys are more intensely vetted than civilian guys?

 

[capt1900]

I'm not touching this one.

 

[labbats]

Military guys are more intensely vetted than civilian guys?

5000 hours in the same type of aircraft in the same crew environment to the same destinations isn't vetted enough already?

Look I realize this is a contentious issue, but it's the elephant in the room. I'm curious as to other's opinions about this.

 

[MG386]

Here we go!

 

[pilotyip]

I know from our experience the training failure rate for military trained pilots is far below that of the civilian source pilots that we have hired. The military's weeding out process eliminates a lot of guys in training; I would guess much more than a civilian training program.

 

[kf4amu]

5000 hours in the same type of aircraft in the same crew environment to the same destinations isn't vetted enough already?

Look I realize this is a contentious issue, but it's the elephant in the room. I'm curious as to other's opinions about this.

I think we've all flown with 5000 hour guys you wouldnt allow to drive your family car...

 

[Boxboy]

If you can't safely fly a Boeing or an Airbus (or whatever) from point A to point B with 5,000 hours under the belt, perhaps one should look into another line of work. There are knuckleheads everywhere, whether military or civilian background. Ex-military group is more of a "known quantity" vs. the civilian counterparts. IMHO, one group is not better than the other in the airline world.

 

[t-bone]

I got weeded out before I ever got started by my less than perfect eye-sight. LASIK fixed that for me....but I'm still in the civilian-only boat. Too bad the customer service skills required in the 135/fractional world don't seem to factor in as much in the 121 hiring process.

 

[cbrown1]

I'm curious why all of the majors continue to hire almost exclusively military while the LCCs like JetBlue, Allegiant, Virgin America and Spirit get one or two spots a month if any.

If I were in charge of a major airline I would want people who have already flown my same types of aircraft and by the simple fact of hiring them would hurt my competition.

LCCs are forced to hire fresh and pay to train replacements of those who go to the majors. You'd have newhires that are already consolidated and fully experienced.

What am I missing?

Most pilots at legacies that were hired years ago and that are now in the management positions were military. Most pilots that are at the LCCs have come from the civilian arena. It's just people hiring what they see as the best candidates and those candidates mirror themselves.