Tag Archives for pilots.
Spirit Airlines is planning to furlough 260 pilots starting in September. They’re blaming Pratt & Whitney engine issues, which limit their flying. However, they’re also deferring delivery of new aircraft because of their financial position. And they wouldn’t be in this position, except for the federal government blocking plans which would have utilized these resources.
Both pilots of a Batik Air Airbus A320 fell asleep in the cockpit on a flight from Kendari to Jakarta, Indonesia.
The aircraft was carrying 153 passengers, 4 flight attendants and 2 pilots. While cruising at 36,000 feet, the pilots removed their headsets and increased the cockpit speaker volume. The captain decided to take a short break and rested….
In a scoop broken first by aviation watchdog JonNYC, American Airlines is opening up a New York Boeing 787 pilot base. Basing 787 pilots in New York will allow the airline to operate that aircraft from New York JFK without deadheading pilots in from other cities. American Airlines has been flying all Boeing 777s on long haul international routes.
Just a few months ago, JetBlue had a big plan for growth. Now they’re shrinking quickly. They offered buy out packages to non-union employees to reduce staff count. And now they’re offering to pay pilots not to fly.
Pilot unions will fight against continued loss in jobs, and very few would push the button today to go from two to one human in the cockpit. But the technology will arrive that will make travel much safer replacing a human at least as co-pilot. And at that point pilot unions will be clearly lobbying against safety.
Following the recent Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9 incident, the NTSB determined that the cockpit voice recorder, in place to help review aviation incidents and make flying safer, had already been recorded over. Two hours of recording time isn’t enough when it takes awhile to recover a ‘black box’. But pilot unions say their members’ privacy trumps safety.
Last month conservative commentator Ashley St. Clair launched a firestorm over commercial airlines transporting undocumented immigrations. It was an odd criticism of Biden administration immigration policy when at a time when flying and busing migrants has also been the policy of some Republican governors.
Now Ms. Sinclair has turned her attention to United Airlines pilot hiring practices.
Under the new American Airlines pilot contract, for the first time, deadheading pilots receive upgrades ahead of customers to available first class seats at the gate. Officially, in American Airlines computer systems, these pilots are coded with a higher priority even than top status Executive Platinum and even Concierge Key members. AA: "Did know if you saw this but effective today, AA Deadheading pilots traveling under A1DP/A3DP status will now go on the upgrade list as a UPG0, ahead of CK and EP Something about their ratified contract" — JonNYC (@xJonNYC) December 1, 2023 Unsold first class seats now go to employees who are not piloting an aircraft between segments on a trip they’re working. That’s different than commuting to and from their base if they live in a different city than where they’re assigned…
FedEx pilot crews have been told that – despite the national pilot shortage – they are overstaffed, because air cargo demand is down. Pilots are receiving minimum hours only, for the most part, and they expect that to remain “for the foreseeable future.” This is an industry-wide issue.
As a result, the shipping company is telling its pilots to go work for American Airlines through one of their regional airlines.
Two American Eagle regional pilots were caught by a boarding passenger watching cartoons prior to flight. The captain and co-pilot of the Bombardier regional jet flying for American Airlines’ wholly-owned regional airline PSA didn’t instill passenger confidence, but the flight wound up… fine?
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
