The infamous "pilot shortage" again...

one of the most expensive thing in Airline Management mind is Maintainence parts. I believe we spent about over $110,000 on tires and brakes alone last night at Dulles (that's like paying 5 and a half first year FOs their whole yearly salaries).
 
CrippleHawk said:
one of the most expensive thing in Airline Management mind is Maintainence parts. I believe we spent about over $110,000 on tires and brakes alone last night at Dulles (that's like paying 5 and a half first year FOs their whole yearly salaries).
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Penny wise and pound foolish.
 
CrippleHawk said:
one of the most expensive thing in Airline Management mind is Maintainence parts. I believe we spent about over $110,000 on tires and brakes alone last night at Dulles (that's like paying 5 and a half first year FOs their whole yearly salaries).
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You're over at the Mesa/Colgan hangar right? Somebody in that parking lot has a black late 80s/early 90s Toyota Supra that I drool over every time I drive past on the way to the crew lot. My first car was a 1991 Supra Twin Turbo when I lived in Japan.
 
pullup said:
So...you...don't want the aircraft to stop?
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brakes and tires could be spared (ha ha) if pilots gave a crap about the company. At AUC we can really stretch tires and brakes because we see them (we have to change them) and we try to keep costs down. At some airlines the guys could give a hoot about the bottom line because they don't take part in the riches...
 
Bumblebee said:
brakes and tires could be spared (ha ha) if pilots gave a crap about the company. At AUC we can really stretch tires and brakes because we see them (we have to change them) and we try to keep costs down. At some airlines the guys could give a hoot about the bottom line because they don't take part in the riches...
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Thanks for the info.
 
Doug Taylor said:
If it's a company where they take the Ayn Rand approach of "YURRRRR LUCKY TO HAVE A JOB, DROID!!!" well, productivity goes down, costs go up and your product will suck. Show me a sucky regional and I'll show you a company that treats it's employees like replaceable 12 year olds.
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Maybe they know that and it keeps the revolving door spinning?
 
Bumblebee said:
brakes and tires could be spared (ha ha) if pilots gave a crap about the company. At AUC we can really stretch tires and brakes because we see them (we have to change them) and we try to keep costs down. At some airlines the guys could give a hoot about the bottom line because they don't take part in the riches...
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The best job I ever had...they didn't care about brakes and tires because they knew that no one who worked for them was going to be a jerk about such things. How did they know this? Because they were all guys who had done it, right up to the Boss. It was Assumed, as it should be. No spreadsheets, no assumptions, no micro-managment. And I know that I, and everyone I worked with enough to comment upon, tried real hard to keep costs under control as best as we could understand them. Because "we" WERE "them". Didn't need to be stated in a Memo or held over our heads...we were working for people just like us. I'd go through hell in a gasoline suit for those guys...for my Lords and Masters? Well, Safety is first.
 
I just interviewed at Mesaba/Colgan/Pinnacle the other day.

CP and senior captain said that according to they're projections (mostly paraphrasing here), if things don't explode as much as everyone is predicting or if gas jumps a lot "we'll still be hiring quite a few pilots for the next three to four years with the number of guys going to the majors." If things work in favor of the pilots, "the projections are staggering and I'm really not sure how we'll be able to handle it."

Granted no one knows what the future holds... but I think its safe to say we'll see some demand, like I've said before I'd rather see a steady stream of hiring over a long period of time than these short bursts we've gotten over the last decade.
 
Screaming_Emu said:
You're over at the Mesa/Colgan hangar right? Somebody in that parking lot has a black late 80s/early 90s Toyota Supra that I drool over every time I drive past on the way to the crew lot. My first car was a 1991 Supra Twin Turbo when I lived in Japan.
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Yep I am at that hanger but I do not own the Supra
 
Roger Cohen, president of the Regional Airline Association, disagrees.

"Today, flying for a regional airline for many individuals has become their career," says Cohen, noting that while opportunities at larger carriers have decreased amid several mergers, pay is rising in the regional sector, and pilots are able to fly larger and more sophisticated aircraft. "They make lifestyle choices to stay at regional carriers because benefits, compensation, (and the) type of flying suits them well."
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[video=youtube;hFU8LzWDsXM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFU8LzWDsXM&feature=related[/video]


Note my response to Cohen and to the article at large.
 
Bumblebee said:
brakes and tires could be spared (ha ha) if pilots gave a crap about the company. At AUC we can really stretch tires and brakes because we see them (we have to change them) and we try to keep costs down. At some airlines the guys could give a hoot about the bottom line because they don't take part in the riches...
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I do care about the bottom line I just think the company is not always in the right about the bottom line. My company wants us EMB pilots to land and use max brakes and no thrust reversers. They say it is the best for brake wear. I have no doubt it is good for the brakes but it sucks for the people in the back and I will not do it. There is a lot of things the company would like us to do to save money that I think is bad customer service that I try not to do. So in a why maybe I care more about the bottom line then the company.
 
Hootie said:
there will never be shortage here is why. you pay somebody enough they will do anything. airline travelers will only pay so much for a ticket before demand diminishes. management told me that pilot salaries are the most critical item that affects ticket costs. add it all up and it ALWAYS equals zero.

the article has as much credibility as me complaining about a stripper shortage if i go into a club with a pocket of quarters.
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So far this week we have spent over $300,000 on Tires and brakes alone (For The CRJ700/900s). Plus we also hav MELs to fix so I am pretty sure we have spent well over 1/2 a million dollars on Maitainence parts so far
 
Mike H said:
Of course they "share in the riches". Where to you think the payroll comes from, a money tree?
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The payrates are the limit of the riches.

There is very little incentive to go above and beyond at too many companies.

Sad, and not how it should be -- but that is how it is at many places.
 
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