February 2009 Archives

Bombardier Aerospace confirmed today that a firm order for six CRJ700 NextGen regional jets plus 10 options was placed by GoJet Airlines of St. Louis, Missouri.

Congratulations to Mark, who was just hired by Great Lakes Airlines. Mark completed the Private Pilot & Airline Career Pilot Program and Regional Jet Standards Certification Program with ATP.

Getting a job flying for the airlines is very competitive and always has been. It has become even more competitive lately, and you have to do whatever you can to make your resume stand out from the other resumes in that big stack lying on the recruiter’s desk. Having experience flying an aircraft powered by turbine engines is a definite plus.

No matter which path you decide to take to become an Airline Pilot, you must realize that there are many other very qualified individuals who also want that job. You need to make yourself as desirable as possible to the airlines. Paying attention to the following as you pursue your goals will make a world of difference when you get to that airline interview you have been working toward.

When you complete your flight training, you are going to have to gain some quality flight experience before an airline will hire you. Remember the research you did earlier to find the flight times required by the airline you want to work for? Your next move is to build the amount of flight time they require to be eligible to interview with them. There are a few ways to do that.

Once you have made the decision to become a professional aviator, it’s time to begin flight training. Airlines require a pilot to have several FAA certificates and ratings before giving them an interview, so you should do some research on how you get those certificates

A good course of action is to plan to complete your flight training with not only the certificates and ratings that you need to fly for the airlines, but also the training and tools that you will need to continue to build quality flight time and experience.

When an airline needs to hire pilots, they set out to hire talented pilots with good educations and loads of quality flight experience. Each airline has its own hiring qualifications, so a little research is in order to find the qualifications for the airline you want to work for. Qualifications also fluctuate according to the supply of pilots and the number of flying jobs available. When several airlines are hiring actively, the demand for pilots goes up and airlines often lower their flight time requirements to increase the number of resumes coming in.

Republic Airways Holdings, which owns Chautauqua Airlines, Republic Airlines and Shuttle America, reported a profit of $84.6 million for the year 2008, up 2.2% from the prior year. Republic also reported that revenue rose 14.5% compared to last year to $1.48 billion.

Hello future airline pilots. My name is Michael Bailey and I currently fly the Boeing 717 for AirTran Airways, based in Atlanta, Georgia. I will be contributing to this blog periodically and am looking forward to sharing some of the things that I experience flying the line for AirTran.

I can relate to most of you because I wanted to be an airline pilot for as long as I can remember.

No matter what kind of equipment you have been flying or how you flew it before you were hired, your new airline will expect you to learn their flight procedures and adhere to them. As soon as you are hired, your airline will send you a box of manuals and expect you to know the material when you show up for ground school. This package will contain, among other things, a POH (Pilots Operating Handbook). The POH will describe every maneuver that you will be learning, and exactly how to do it, so that is a good place to start.

We are living in a time and culture where something doesn’t attract much attention unless it is the fastest, or the biggest, or the newest. We tend to be that way in aviation too, but don’t overlook some very interesting jobs available today flying turboprops. Great Lakes Aviation has been in business for a long time flying very tough and reliable turboprops such as the Beech 1900 and the Embraer Brazilia, and is expanding its route structure.

My name is Jason Ginn. I am a pilot with American Eagle Airlines, and currently I fly the CRJ-700. I have (in my opinion) the best job in the world, and from time to time I will be contributing to this Blog to tell you about it.

AirTran's plan to buy Midwest Airlines in late 2007 failed, but it's still determined to take away part of Midwest's business with a new marketing plan - along with a big increase in flights from Milwaukee’s Mitchell International Airport.

Canadair Regional Jet manufacturer Bombardier Aerospace announced that Colgan Air has signed a firm order to buy 15 Q400 NextGen airliners. This purchase is in addition to the 15 aircraft order Pinnacle announced in January. Based on the list price of the Q400 NextGen aircraft, the contract is valued at approximately $432 million.

American Airlines became the second airline this week to announce that they will be recalling furloughed pilots. A spokesman for American said the pilots were being recalled to fly new aircraft being added to its fleet, new routes being added to its schedule and to replace pilots who are retiring.

At ATP, the last stage in flight training is our Regional Jet Standards Certification Program. It is designed to expose a student to the accelerated pace of a Part 121 airline training program. Learning to perform up to airline standards will greatly increase your chances of success when you have to do it during Initial Flight Training at your new airline. A good Jet Transition course like ours is designed to help a pilot make several transitions actually.

Airtran Airways reported today that it will recall to flight duty all of the pilots it has remaining on furlough. AirTran also announced today that passenger traffic has increased 2.3 percent in January, while its load factor has jumped 5.8 percent.

Frontier Airlines posted $18.7 million in profit in December, in spite of a recession, a collapse in the financial markets and a sharp decline in travel to post its best numbers ever for the month.

The Airline Industry is beginning to add new flights to new cities. Some of these flights are being returned to the airline schedules because they were cut last year in response to record high fuel prices in 2008. The following airlines have added flights to these pairs of cities:

Delta Airlines:

• Atlanta and Columbus
• Jacksonville, Florida and Cincinnati

Allegiant Air:

• Grand Rapids and Las Vegas
• Grand Rapids and Orlando
• Grand Rapids and St. Petersburg

AirTran:

• Jacksonville and Atlanta

Continental Airlines:

• Jacksonville and Cleveland

JetBlue:

• Jacksonville and New York City

Northwest Airlines:

• Jacksonville and Detroit

United Airlines:

• Jacksonville and Washington-Dulles

Southwest Airlines:

• Nashville and Baltimore/ Washington, D.C.(BWI)
• Nashville and Phoenix
• Nashville and Chicago
• Nashville and Jacksonville
• Nashville and Tampa
• San Francisco and Orange County (5 flights daily)

Alaska Air/Horizon Airlines:

• Seattle and Portland (4 flights daily)