A certain legacy airline just started offering CA positions to bid for during indoc. They are must fill positions, so in theory, the bottom folks in the class could be “forced” (forced isn’t really correct since they knew this was a possibility before they got to class) into them. As it turns out, the top people in the class chose those positions.
New hires who get CA positions have to fly as an FO for a while and pass a bunch of other wickets before they sit left seat on their own.
The reason CA positions aren’t desirable to more senior pilots is because NB CAs are worked hard. WB FOs make great pay and have better schedules and more days off.
With all that background, what do you all think about the practice of offering new hires a captain position?
My thoughts- The biggest arguments against this practice are that QOL should be good enough so that senior pilots want to be captains, new hires are “forced” into it, and safety. The “forced” aspect was covered above. The union/ company should have done a better job making QOL better for NB CAs. Agreed. Well, they didn’t, so the pilots got new hire upgrades instead. It’s in the contract, a done deal, and pilots can lament it all they want but it isn’t changing for at least 4 years. This company’s new hires are often very experienced former captains and all were hired in a competitive process regardless of their backgrounds. One can argue they aren’t familiar with company operations but they’ll be flying as FOs for a while before they call the shots. And I forgot to mention, they’ll get 100 hours of OE. I honestly think the safety aspect is mitigated. I’m fine with it, but the vocal folks elsewhere are very vocal in the other direction. Haven’t seen it discussed here so I was interested in what this group thinks.
New hires who get CA positions have to fly as an FO for a while and pass a bunch of other wickets before they sit left seat on their own.
The reason CA positions aren’t desirable to more senior pilots is because NB CAs are worked hard. WB FOs make great pay and have better schedules and more days off.
With all that background, what do you all think about the practice of offering new hires a captain position?
My thoughts- The biggest arguments against this practice are that QOL should be good enough so that senior pilots want to be captains, new hires are “forced” into it, and safety. The “forced” aspect was covered above. The union/ company should have done a better job making QOL better for NB CAs. Agreed. Well, they didn’t, so the pilots got new hire upgrades instead. It’s in the contract, a done deal, and pilots can lament it all they want but it isn’t changing for at least 4 years. This company’s new hires are often very experienced former captains and all were hired in a competitive process regardless of their backgrounds. One can argue they aren’t familiar with company operations but they’ll be flying as FOs for a while before they call the shots. And I forgot to mention, they’ll get 100 hours of OE. I honestly think the safety aspect is mitigated. I’m fine with it, but the vocal folks elsewhere are very vocal in the other direction. Haven’t seen it discussed here so I was interested in what this group thinks.
