IN THIS MONTH'S EDITION:

PAY RAISES TURN INTO GOLDEN HANDCUFFS
IS THE PILOT SHORTAGE REAL? CONTINUED...
MONTHLY AIRLINE HIRING UPDATE
TURNING DOWN A CJO? NOT WISE.
JOB FAIR NERVES? WE HAVE THE TIPS.

PAY RAISES TURN INTO GOLDEN HANDCUFFS

In the Summer of 2022, regional airlines started doubling, or in some cases tripling, pay for their pilots with new enhanced pay scales. They also started throwing retention bonuses at pilots in the range of $100,000 or more with MANY strings attached. Many regional pilots opted to stay with their regional airlines instead of continuing to pursue a major airline because of these raises. During the recent hiring boom, major airlines were hiring 2000+ pilots per year. On the old legacy contracts, first year pay was in the $90 per hour range while regional first officers with over 750 hours were making over $150 per hour. A common statement that was made during this time was, "I can't afford the pay cut," or "I'll just wait to flow." Now with airline hiring dramatically reduced, new legacy contracts, and some facing a looming expiration on the increased pay rates, many have to be asking themselves if it was worth it to stay.

During the massive hiring wave, pilots were treated like hot commodities. Regional airlines were throwing as much money as they could (usually with strings attached) at their pilots to slow the attrition. Fast forward to today and now, regionals are facing overstaffing, minimal movement, and are beginning to slip back into the old regional mindset. Many pilots are now beginning to see what they gave up for “temporary” money that has left them with "golden handcuffs" attached to their current airline.

If you were hired roughly one year ago at any of the big-three legacies, you would easily have more than 1000 pilots junior to you and you will soon be approaching your year-two pay rate of more than $178 per hour. Neither of these numbers are a small amount. While you can get hired by a legacy and get these pay rates in the future, you'll never get the seniority back that you have lost by choosing to stay at a regional. So, what do you lose when you choose to give up seniority? Just to name a few, you lose choice of base, choice of vacation weeks, the option to hold a line, a quicker upgrade to captain, the opportunity to fly a wide-body airplane, and many more tangibles and intangibles that directly affect quality of life.

For those who have chosen the golden handcuffs, it's not too late to progress your career with even more earnings down the road provided you sacrifice one year of lower, but still above-average pay. For those who have yet to get here, we know the numbers look large for your first airline job, but keep your legacy goals in mind and keep chasing them.

Is the Pilot Shortage Real? Continued...

Last month we discussed a topic on which everyone has a strong opinion, it seems. We discussed an interview that David Neelman did with FORTUNE claiming that the pilot shortage wasn't real and that there is an abundance of pilots trying to land jobs right now. He also brought up his opinion that there was only a captain shortage because first officers are making plenty of money to stay in the right seat. So, we took a poll last month, with thousands of responses, and it seems that the majority of our subscribers agreed with David Neelman. Our poll results:

Captain Shortage: 64%

Pilot Shortage: 36%

According to an article by ALPA, there were 11,225 new Airline Transport Pilot (ATP) certificates issued to aviators in 2023, which is a record. If you account for the three major airlines, their seniority lists are around 16000-17000 pilots each. Producing 11,225 ATP-rated pilots each year can quickly produce a glut. While the airline job market has historically been cyclical and can go bust in the blink of an eye, we can look at the average number of retirements and planned growth for the airlines to anticipate the need for pilots in the future. The current production rate of new pilots is based on the hiring boom we saw in 2022 and 2023. We anticipate a more tempered hiring environment in the future which can make landing that dream job a little more challenging.

Airline hiring is constantly changing, and these are the latest updates as of September 15, 2024.

	LEGACY AIRLINES
AIRLINE	HIRING	DETAILS
Alaska	NO	Not currently hiring
Americ an	NO	All pilot hiring paused until ~Q1 2025
Delta	YES	2024 classes are full. Filling 2025 classes
Hawaiian	NO	First Officer hiring window is closed
United	YES	Hiring First Officers

ATTENDING AN UPCOMING JOB FAIR?

We know first-hand that attending a job fair can be stressful. The dozens of recruiters and thousands of attendees all around you make them hectic events. Meanwhile your sole focus is making the best impression you can to the airline recruiters of your preferred airline.

If you are wanting to stand out from the rest when you have your one-on-one with a recruiter but don't know where to start, we can help!

Aero Crew Solutions offers a one-hour job fair preparation to help you stand out! We will review your résumé and help talk about any questions that may come up about your background. We will also help answer any questions you may have about you or the company.

For more information, or to sign up, CLICK HERE

	REGIONAL & LCC
AIRLINE	HIRING	DETAILS
Air Wisconsin	YES	Hiring DEC's
Allegiant	YES	Hiring First Officers
Avelo	YES	Hiring DEC's and First Officers
Breeze	NO	Not currently hiring
Cape Air	YES	Hiring DEC's and FO's
CommuteAir	YES	Hiring DEC's and FO's
Endeavor	YES	Hiring DEC's and FO's
Envoy	YES	Hiring FO's
Frontier	YES	Hiring FO's
GoJet	YES	Hiring DEC's
Horizon	YES	Hiring Experienced First Officer's Only
JetBlue	NO	Paused hiring for rest of 2024
Mesa	NO	Not hiring and furloughed ~50 pilots
Piedmont	YES	Hiring FO's
PSA	YES	Hiring FO's
Republic	APPLY NOW	Hiring DEC's and FO's with $100K bonus for DEC's upon completion of Captain OE
Silver	YES	Hiring DEC's and FO's
Spirit	NO	Not hiring with pilots furloughed
SkyWest	YES	Hiring DEC's and FO's
Southwest	NO	Not hiring through the end of 2024
Sun Country	YES	Hiring First Officers

HIRING FAQ OF THE MONTH

Q: I WANT TO GO TO ____ AIRLINE BUT HAVE A CJO TO ANOTHER AIRLINE. WHAT DO I DO?

A: Unless you have an interview scheduled with your choice airline before your class date, we 100% recommend that you take the current job offer that you have.

This is a common question we hear among our clients and friends in the aviation business. For a multitude of reasons, everyone has that one specific airline for which they want to work. During the hiring wave of 2022 and 2023, we saw many pilots jumping from airline to airline at the regionals and even at the legacies as well. Why was this happening?

This "airline hopping" was the result of such rapid movement within the industry that if someone wanted to make a lateral move to their choice airline, they could do that and gain seniority quickly enough that it wouldn't affect them too much. But what do all of these pilots have in common? They took a CJO elsewhere before they were able to go where they wanted to be.

We recommend taking the first CJO because if hiring rapidly ceases, like it did in the 2000's and in 2020, you want to have a seniority number with an employer rather than being stuck on the outside. Seniority is everything, and when you can secure a job at an airline, we recommend taking the first available class date.

Alternatively, what if you turned down a CJO and then failed an interview with your choice airline? You would probably be wishing that you had taken that first job. Unless you can secure another interview before you have to go to class for your current CJO, it would be wise to take the offered job.

The most important thing we can recommend is to apply only to airlines that to which you will say yes should you be offered a CJO. When you are hired, take the earliest class date possible, and then if something better is offered down the road, you can make that decision from the comfort of your current job.

TIPS FROM OUR RECRUITING TEAM

Lately, job-fair season has been in full swing leaving just a couple more for you to attend before the end of the year. With the recent slowdown in pilot hiring, job-fair interactions are even more important in helping you land the job you want. But as most of us know, walking up to someone you don't know to start a conversation can be a little awkward. It can even be more awkward when you want to talk to them about helping you get a job at their airline. So how do we handle this?

The preparation for a job fair starts before you ever show up. Think about what information you want to convey and practice your elevator pitch to a recruiter. Don't be one-dimensional, only emphasizing your flying history. Talk about your hobbies, family, etc. to convey who you are as a person. This practice beforehand is the first step toward success.

The most important thing you can do once you are there is to give a firm handshake to the recruiter and say hello. The next most important thing is to maintain good eye contact throughout your conversation with the recruiter. These two things demonstrate strong interpersonal skills that can start you off on the right foot.

After you have said hello and exchanged pleasantries, you reach the awkward transition of speaking about career opportunities. So where do you begin? Usually, the recruiter will ask a leading question to get you going, but if not, don't worry. Begin by telling them about yourself, your background, and your career aspirations. This will open up the conversation to a variety of topics that you can then go with.

One of the biggest things we tell our clients at Aero Crew Solutions is to be yourself and be personable. We know that these meetings can be stressful as you only have one chance to make a first impression with this recruiter. That's why we HIGHLY recommend taking a job-fair-prep course to ensure you are ready. When you can stand out among the rest of the candidates, you might just land your dream job.

Aero Crew Solutions offers a one-hour job-fair-prep course for $149, and we would love to help you land your next job. For more information, click below!

Job Fair Prep Course

	CARGO
AIRLINE	HIRING	DETAILS
ABX	YES	Hiring First Officers
Ameriflight	NO	Not currently hiring
AmeriJet	NO	Stopped hiring with furloughs announced
ATI	NO	Not currently hiring
Atlas	YES	Hiring First Officers
FedEx	NO	Has not been hiring for many months
Freight Runners	NO	Not currently hiring
Kalitta	YES	Hiring First Officers
Mountain Air	YES	Hiring DEC's
Omni	NO	Not currently hiring. Offering LOA's
UPS	YES	Hiring 300 First Officers in 2024

UPCOMING RECRUITING EVENTS

RTAG Oct 5-6 Fort Worth, TX

NGPA Feb 13-14 Palm Springs, CA

WAI Mar 27-29 Denver, CO

PAPA June 2-4 Las Vegas, NV

TPNx TBD Minneapolis, MN

OBAP Aug 6-8 Tacoma, WA

IMMEDIATE DIRECT-ENTRY CAPTAIN POSITIONS AVAILABLE

Aero Crew Solutions has immediate direct-entry captain positions open in which we can help place qualified candidates! If you are qualified with over 1,000 hours of Part-121 eligible flight time, reach out to us at candidate@aerocrewsolutions.com and we will be happy to help!

Need Help With Application Review, Interview Prep, Job Fair Prep, or General Career Advice?

Reach out to us at www.aerocrewsolutions.com and our team of former airline recruiters will help you get everything ready to further your career! Click here to schedule a FREE confidential consultation.

ANY AIRLINE HIRING QUESTIONS YOU WANT TO SEE PUBLISHED?

If you have any recruiting questions that you would like to see us answer in future editions, send an email to newsletter@aerocrewsolutions.com