Skywest cancels classes

Hootie said:
United wants to cut capacity by 5% and when Delta merges with Northwest or Alaska they will reduce domestic capacity. I see regional growth coming to a screaching halt in 2008 for everyone while everything gets sorted out. Also I would rather be overstaffed anyday.
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I'd prefer to be NORMALLY staffed. For me, that means slightly understaffed rather than overstaffed. What happens then is during the summer, you've got open time available for those that want it, you can have varying degrees of line values (the guys that don't want to fly don't have to, and the ones that do can) and in the winter months when the marketing schedule goes through the floor you don't have all these people standing around or FOs not able to feed themselves b/c they're making guarantee. Now, if you're at a place that pays a decent wage, you've got the mins to upgrade and you're in no rush to go somewhere, then yeah, overstaffed is fine so you can get by on guarantee. Wheelsup seems pretty happy with that arrangement over at Air Wisconsin. It would drive me bonkers, though. Being SLIGHTLY understaffed gives enough variety in the schedules to have a happy medium. Overstaffed means everyone gets tanked on their line values. Understaffed means everyone is flying 90+ hours whether they like it or not.

Southwest's staffing model seems to work quite well in a "slightly understaffed" configuration.
 
If this little rumot is true, I just wonder what ASA may end up feeling due to this decision - if anything. Hopefully things don't slow down on the east coast.
 
flyguy said:
Even if we do get something going on with ExpressJet, there's no way they are going to merge the pilot groups. Same reason we haven't merged with ASA. We would become a union carrier by default. As much as a lot of people would like to see that happen, the powers that be will fight it tooth and nail.
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Yes it would be nice to see Skywest unionized.
 
DE727UPS said:
"Is this correct, according to APC, Skywest cancelled all classes after Feb 18"

I wouldn't believe a damn thing I heard at the APC regional fourms. What a sorry place that is....

Were they right?
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Only the awarded March bro upgrade is scheduled . . . . the music has stopped for now.
 
So, Skywest changes their minimums from "hard" to "preferred", and seems to have overstocked themselves with FOs at certain domiciles. Why would they do this unless they had some expansion in the works? Could be that this new deal fell through, and they have to un-prepare.
 
DE727UPS said:
"Is this correct, according to APC, Skywest cancelled all classes after Feb 18"

I wouldn't believe a damn thing I heard at the APC regional fourms. What a sorry place that is....

Were they right?
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I don't know but it seems the latest Skywest rumor over there is that they are buying Mesa:drool:
 
Schinpop said:
So, Skywest changes their minimums from "hard" to "preferred", and seems to have overstocked themselves with FOs at certain domiciles. Why would they do this unless they had some expansion in the works? Could be that this new deal fell through, and they have to un-prepare.
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Or they botched their hiring numbers (like my company did) and had their block hours reduced from their mainline carrier (which also happened at my company).
 
CirrusMonkey said:
I don't know but it seems the latest Skywest rumor over there is that they are buying Mesa:drool:
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OMG, and the list continues to grow.

So now we're taking over for Eagle and Ted, and we're buying ExpressJet, Frontier, and now Mesa. What'll they think of next? :rolleyes:
 
I must say, I like the current staffing level. I have flown 12 days this year, that includes 2 days for my PC. Where I sit on the reserve list, I may not fly again at SkyWest. I only have 16 more days before I leave.
 
jtrain609 said:
Or they botched their hiring numbers (like my company did) and had their block hours reduced from their mainline carrier (which also happened at my company).
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When I was on the hiring staff at Skywest, it seemed that once we nailed down how many pilots to hire and when to schedule classes, United or Delta would change the block hours required and it would either be feast or famine! All the numbers would change, literally overnight.
 
I want us to be 'normal' on staffing again. i.e. open time available and flying for reserves. Or at least those of us who want to fly on first call. Right now I am relatively senior on reserve can be #1 when on first call and sat 4 days doing nothing last week. No bueno for this guy. Personally, I am glad we are slowing down on hiring and upgrades.
 
Today just for the fun of it I e-mailed my resume (1,000 TT, 140 Multi, 85 Instrument) and I got a reply saying that I dont meet the 100 hours Instrument requirement and that is a hard requirement, and to contact them when I meet it. At least they looked at my resume.
 
wheelsup said:
Heaven forbid, a month without upgrades...the sky is falling!!!
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not saying the sky is falling . . .just that the natural ebb and flow has taken effect here where we have hired nearly 1500 pilots (in less than 2 years). I understand there may be small upgrade classes continuing into April.
 
bumblebee said:
not saying the sky is faling . . .just that the natural ebb and flow has taken effect here where we have hired nearly 1500 pilots. I understand there may be small upgrade classes continuing into April.
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So Dale, so when can WANG call you Captain?:D
 
wheelsup said:
I do. Typically all the lines are low time w/ little open time which stinks for those folks wanting to make more money. In addition reserves go unused and sit in their crashpads.

Too much of something really is a bad thing in my book.
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It's great if you live in base. Sit around home all the time while collecting a paycheck for watching TV and golfing. Where's the problem here? :D
 
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