United Recalls 600 Furloughed Pilots Positions Open Up Due to Retirements and New Rest Rules United Continental Recalling 600 Furloughed Pilots - WSJ.com
Yeah, I wonder how many will go back. A fellow pilot here at NCA is a furloughed United pilot. I believe he has 10 years at UAL. Maybe more. But I think he's been on furlough for 9 of them. He's a captain at NCA. He has no plans to go back as a A320 FO. We have ex Delta, AA, UAL guys here. All gave up their seniority and stayed. A few did go back to Hawaian, Air New Zealand, and Air Canada. I'm guessing less than half will go back to UAL. That should open up "off the street" hiring. I wonder how long it's been since UAL hired new guys (gals)...
Delta has sent out letters to those who have been on bypass. It will be interesting to see how many come back. As a side note I've heard hiring 50 a month in the not too distant future.
Taz, I think the regionals will supply a lot of the needed pilots. There has been a huge log jam in the whole airline pilot flow. Every one was essentially frozen for 5 years due to age 65. Add several more years for the crappy economy and you have thousand of pilots who have been stuck in their present positions for a long long time. As an example I believe American has not hired any one for 12 years, imagine being at the bottom of the list for 12 years. There are a lot of experienced regional guys and gals waiting to get hired at a major. The regionals will be completely screwed. The $64 question is how will the huge pilot shortage be filled. One possibility is to once again raise the retirement age again (a lot of the cockpits do in fact have room to store a walker or two). The other "solution" could be allow foreign carriers or foreign pilots to operate within the boarders of the US.
There are already lots of foreign pilots in the US. I used to fly with a couple of Swedes, and more than a few Canadians. Lots of people come to the US to train because it is so much less expensive than at home, and they find a way to stay.
