According to WSB-TV, one Delta employee and a contractor were killed as they were removing the tire.

Another airline employee was seriously injured as a result of the incident. In a statement to the news outlet, Delta confirmed the report.

“The Delta family is heartbroken at the loss of two team members and the injury of another following an incident this morning at the Atlanta Technical Operations Maintenance facility (TOC 3),” a Delta spokesman said. “We have extended our full support to family members and colleagues during this incredibly difficult time…The Delta family is grateful for the quick action of first responders and medical teams on site. We are now working with local authorities and conducting a full investigation to determine what happened.”

Few details are available as to what caused the incident. The involved aircraft is reportedly registered as N683DA, a 31-year-old Boeing 757-200 that had just flown from Las Vegas to Atlanta on Sunday evening.

Editor’s Note: This article first appeared on AirlineGeeks.com.

The post Two Killed in Delta Aircraft Tire Explosion appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

In a response letter to CrowdStrike attorney Michael Carlinsky, Delta attorney David Boies states that the software company has no basis to suggest the airline was responsible for the faulty software that crashed systems around the world.

“When the disaster occurred, dedicated Delta employees across the company worked tirelessly to recover from the damage CrowdStrike had caused,” Boies states in the letter. “Their efforts were hindered by CrowdStrike’s failure to promptly provide an automatic solution or the information needed to facilitate those efforts.”

• READ MORE: GA, Private Aviation Dodge Worst of Cyber Outage Impact

Among several points addressed by Boies in his letter, he notably asserts that CrowdStrike showed no sense of urgency for the damage it caused, and the cybersecurity company’s offers to assist Delta were too late. Boies states that CrowdStrike’s offers of assistance during the first 65 hours of the outage simply referred Delta to CrowdStrike’s publicly available remediation website, which instructed Delta to manually reboot every affected machine.

“While CrowdStrike eventually offered a supposed automated solution on Sunday, July 21 at 5:27 pm ET, it introduced a second bug that prevented many machines from recovering without additional intervention,” Boies states.

As for CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz’s offer to support Delta CEO Ed Bastian, Boies said that Kurtz offered this assistance on the evening of July 22, and it was unhelpful and untimely.

“When made—almost four days after the CrowdStrike disaster began—Delta had already restored its critical systems and most other machines,” Boies said. “Many of the remaining machines were located in secure airport areas requiring government-mandated access clearance. By that time Delta’s confidence in CrowdStrike was naturally shaken.”

• READ MORE: CrowdStrike Disputes Negligence Claims in Letter to Delta Attorney

Additionally, Boies addressed claims that Delta’s IT technology was not up to par for handling the disaster.

“Delta rejects CrowdStrike’s misplaced attempt to shift responsibility for its failures to Delta’s ‘IT decisions and response to the outage,’” Boies states. “First, those ‘decisions and response’ had nothing to do with the cause of the outage. Moreover, for the last several years, including prior to and following its recovery from the Faulty Update, Delta’s operational reliability and customer service has led the airline industry. Delta has achieved its industry-leading reliability and service due, in part, to investing billions of dollars in information technology.”

Boies ends the letter demanding CrowdStrike “accept real responsibility for its actions” and compensate the airline for damaging its business, reputation, and goodwill.

Delta Details Financial Impact

The letter comes after Delta detailed its previously reported $500M loss in revenue due to IT outages in an 8-K form published on Thursday.

The report states that the incident caused around 7,000 flight cancellations over the course of five days, leading to $380 million in customer refunds, $170 million in expense reimbursements and crew-related costs, and $50 million in estimated fuel expenses. This has impacted the airline’s projected year-over-year September quarter 2024 capacity growth by approximately 1.5 points.

“An operational disruption of this length and magnitude is unacceptable, and our customers and employees deserve better. Since the incident, our people have returned the operation to an industry-leading position that is consistent with the level of performance our customers expect from Delta,” said Bastian in a statement included in the 8-K form.

Bastian doubled down on previous litigation threats, stating in the form that Delta is pursuing legal claims against CrowdStrike and Microsoft to recover at least $500 million in damages caused by the outage.

Both CrowdStrike and Microsoft have denied Delta’s allegations of negligence for the software update that caused airline disruptions nationwide on July 19. Both companies also claimed that Delta had refused free assistance from their IT teams to help with the airline’s ongoing issues throughout the week of the outage.

Class Action Lawsuit

The U.S. Department of Transportation warned airlines were legally obligated to provide passengers cash refunds shortly after July’s IT outages. Law firms Sauder Schelkopf and Webb, Klase & Lemond filed a class action lawsuit this week on behalf of Delta passengers whose flights were canceled due to the outages.

The complaint alleges that nearly every airline had managed to recover and resume normal operations by the end of the week, except for Delta, which continued to cancel flights.

“On Monday, July 22, it was reported that Delta canceled more than 1,250 flights. These cancellations accounted for nearly 70 percent of all flights within, to, or from the United States that had been canceled on Monday,” Sauder Schelkopf’s website states. “No other U.S. airline had canceled one-tenth as many flights.”

Additionally, the class action lawsuit alleges that Delta failed to give some affected passengers automatic refunds for canceled flights and oftentimes conditioned its offer of partial reimbursements to passengers on a waiver releasing Delta of all legal claims passengers have against Delta.

Editor’s Note: This article first appeared on AirlineGeeks.com.

The post Delta, CrowdStrike Spar Over July Meltdown appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

The massive July 19 computer outage at Delta disrupted the airline’s crew-tracking system for nearly a week, preventing the company from locating pilots and flight attendants to operate flights. As a result, Delta had to cancel some 30 percent of its flights.

• READ MORE: GA, Private Aviation Dodge Worst of Cyber Outage Impact

Speaking to CNBC on Wednesday, Bastian said the carrier is prepared to pursue legal action.

“We have no choice,” Bastian said. “We’re not looking to wipe them out, but we’re looking to make certain that we get compensated, however they decide to, for what they cost us—half a billion dollars in five days.”

Bastian said Delta’s recovery was significantly hampered due to its heavy reliance on CrowdStrike and Microsoft for cybersecurity. The airline had to manually reset 40,000 servers to restore operations.

CNBC reported that Delta has engaged prominent New York City-based law firm Boies Schiller Flexner to seek damages from CrowdStrike and Microsoft.

Editor’s Note: This article first appeared on AVweb.

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United Launch Alliance (ULA) on Friday will attempt the 16th and final launch of its Delta IV Heavy rocket, one of the world’s most powerful—and expensive—commercially produced launch vehicles. The launch was initially scheduled for Thursday afternoon but was scrubbed a few minutes before takeoff.

The mission represents ULA’s 160th overall and the 45th and final flight for the Delta family of rockets as the manufacturer transitions to its Vulcan Centaur. Vulcan made its maiden voyage in January, carrying a Peregrine lunar lander for commercial customer Astrobotic.

“The Delta legacy will live on through Vulcan,” said Gary Wentz, vice president of government and commercial programs for ULA. “We also take this moment to celebrate the thousands of men and women who made the Delta program such a success over the decades. We carry their lessons and wisdom with us into the future.”

ULA is a joint venture between Lockheed Martin and Boeing. It produces the Delta and Atlas families of rockets, primarily for U.S. government use. Delta IV Heavy is the third-highest capacity launch vehicle in operation, behind NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) and SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy.

The Mission

Friday’s mission, NROL-70, is on behalf of the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), which develops and operates spy satellites to collect intelligence and support disaster relief and humanitarian efforts. NROL-70 is ULA’s 35th mission for the NRO and 99th for U.S. national security.

The mission’s payload is classified. But it is possibly intended to give the U.S. more eyes and ears in the stars, which could be used to listen into communications or radio transmissions, for example. Delta IV Heavy is the only rocket in the world that meets all of the requirements to perform the mission, according to ULA.

“The NROL-70 mission will strengthen the NRO’s ability to provide a wide range of timely intelligence information to national decision makers, warfighters, and intelligence analysts to protect the nation’s vital interests and support humanitarian efforts worldwide,” ULA said on its website.

The 235-foot-tall spacecraft will lift off from Space Launch Complex-37 at Cape Canaveral as early as 1:37 p.m. EDT Friday. On ascent, the rocket looks as if it is catching fire, but this is by design, as hydrogen gas used to cool it down before takeoff ignites and burns off. The process is mitigated by a staggered engine ignition, which reduces the amount of hydrogen burned.

First stage separation is expected to occur about five minutes into the mission, followed by the ignition of the main engine and jettisoning of the payload fairing. The spacecraft’s route and final destination are classified.

The Machine

Over six decades, Delta rockets have launched 388 times. About two-thirds of those launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, the base for Friday’s mission. Delta IV rockets have successfully launched 44 times, carrying payloads on behalf of the NRO, NASA, Air Force, and Space Force.

Delta IV comes in three configurations: Medium+, with either two or four solid rocket motors, and Heavy. Each vehicle consists of a common booster core, upper stage, and payload fairing.

Delta IV Heavy features three common booster core tanks, which power a RS-68A engine system built by Aerojet Rocketdyne. RS-68A is the largest hydrogen-burning engine in existence, according to ULA. The engines burn cryogenic liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, each delivering about 700,000 pounds of thrust at sea level.

Atop the booster is a Delta Cryogenic Second Stage (DCSS), or upper stage, which is also fueled by cryogenic liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. It is powered by a single RL10C-2-1 engine, also produced by Aerojet Rocketdyne, that produces nearly 25,000 pounds of thrust. The DCSS avionics system provides guidance and flight control for the booster.

Encapsulating the spacecraft is a payload fairing: a three-piece shell designed to shield cargo from the launch and ascent. The payload fairing can be installed off pad, improving safety and minimizing the use of launch facilities.

The History

Incredibly, the Delta family of systems has been in use since 1960. Initiated by NASA in the late 1950s, the program is derived from the Thor intermediate-range ballistic missile, which was later modified into a space launch vehicle.

The inaugural Delta launch in 1960 was unsuccessful. But it paved the way for Delta rockets to launch the world’s first Telstar and Intelsat communications satellites, birthing the phrase, “Live, via satellite!” The launch vehicles also carried NASA’s Pioneer and Explorer scientific spacecraft and delivered the first weather observatory, the Tiros and Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES), to space, revolutionizing weather forecasting.

Over the years, ULA updated Delta rockets to make them larger, more advanced, and more durable. The company installed larger first stage tanks, strap-on solid rocket boosters, and advanced electronics and guidance systems, increased the rocket’s propellant capacity, upgraded the main engine, and developed upper stage and satellite payload systems.

The earliest Delta models stood about 90 feet tall, with a mass of 112,000 pounds. Today, Delta IV Heavy towers 235 feet high and weighs 1.6 million pounds at launch. Liftoff thrust, meanwhile, has skyrocketed from 150,000 pounds in 1960 to 2.1 million pounds.

Later Delta models would help usher in the GPS era by sending constellations of navigation satellites into orbit. Delta II launched four dozen satellites over two decades, and Delta IV launched seven.

Delta II—which made its final flight in 2018—completed eight NASA missions to Mars, including the delivery of the Spirit and Opportunity rovers, over the course of 155 flights. It also flew missions to Mercury and visited asteroids, moons, and comets within the solar system.

Delta II has launched probes that “touched the sun,” uncovered exoplanets deep in the Milky Way, and scanned large swaths of the universe using infrared vision. In 2014, it launched the first orbital test flight of NASA’s Orion capsule, which will ferry astronauts around the moon and back during the Artemis II mission in 2025.

By 2002, Boeing had developed Delta IV for the Space Force’s Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program. That year, the rocket made its debut flight carrying a Eutelsat 33B, its only commercial payload to date. It delivered its first Air Force payload the following year. In 2007, ULA launched the first operational Delta IV Heavy, sending a Space Force Defense Support Program (DSP) satellite into orbit.

The Legacy

Fifteen flights later, Delta IV Heavy is set to become the final Delta rocket to be retired. In addition, ULA has 17 remaining launches for Atlas V, the country’s longest-serving active rocket. Atlas V is cheaper to launch than its counterpart, but it uses Russian-made rather than American-made engines.

Once Delta IV and Atlas V are off the manifest, ULA will transition all launches to Vulcan, which is less expensive than both predecessors. Like previous ULA launch systems, Vulcan is expendable. It was designed primarily for the National Security Space Launch program, as well as for commercial launches such as January’s mission. Customers include Amazon’s Project Kuiper, which placed an order for 38 launches.

ULA will need to compete with the likes of SpaceX, which in 2023 launched more satellites than any other company. SpaceX in 2010 debuted its reusable Falcon 9 launch vehicle, which undercut Delta IV’s price tag. Delta IV, Falcon 9, and SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy, introduced in 2018, are all under contract with the Pentagon to launch expensive military satellites in the coming years.

In addition, SpaceX has an agreement with the Space Force to take over the vacant Space Launch Complex 6 at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, which hosted Delta IV launches until 2022. The company may further look to acquire room at Space Launch Complex-37 at Cape Canaveral, where ULA will launch Friday barring any hiccups.

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On Wednesday, Joby revealed that four test pilots have now completed flights aboard its air taxi, marking the firm’s transition to crewed flight testing. The addition of onboard pilots is a major boon to Joby’s efforts to type certify the aircraft with the FAA. The initial crewed tests, which took place at the company’s pilot production facility in Marina, California, covered free thrustborne hovers and forward transitions to semi-thrustborne flight.

Joby’s tiltrotor eVTOL is designed to carry a pilot and four passengers over a distance up to 100 sm (87 nm), cruising at 200 mph (174 knots). The company says the aircraft’s quiet noise profile will make it barely audible within a city’s soundscape.

The recent flights build on the surprise delivery of the first Joby eVTOL to Edwards Air Force Base in California, originally scheduled for early 2024. There, Joby and Air Force pilots will evaluate the aircraft’s capabilities in settings similar to those it will face when it begins flying air taxi routes with Delta Air Lines. That service is expected to launch in 2025, beginning in New York and Los Angeles.

James “Buddy” Denham, Joby’s chief test pilot, led the pilot-on-board campaign, which was designed to gather data on the air taxi’s handling abilities and pilot control interface. Denham left the Naval Air Systems Command—where he pioneered a concept for aircraft carrier precision landings and led research and development of the Unified Control Concept, which was integrated into F-35B STOVL aircraft—to join Joby in 2019. 

Joby credited Denham as a major influence in the development of its own flight controls. The chief test pilot had some nice things to say about the company as well.

“Having helped design and test flight controls for a wide variety of aircraft, including all three variants of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, nothing compares to the simplicity and grace of the Joby aircraft,” said Denham. “After completing more than 400 vertical takeoffs and landings from the ground, it is a privilege to sit in the cockpit of our aircraft and experience firsthand the ease and intuitive nature of the design that the Joby team has developed.”

During testing, pilots assessed the ease of conducting maneuvers that will become routine when commercial operations begin. These included vertical takeoffs, acceleration and transition to forward flight, runway centerline tracking, and deceleration into vertical landings. 

Joby said appraisals of the flights will aid its progress toward type certification, as well as its activities with the Air Force’s Agility Prime program. Agility Prime is the vertical lift division of AFWERX, the Air Force’s innovation arm. Earlier this year, Joby and Agility Prime extended their research and development contract, bringing its total value to $131 million.

Type Certification: On the Horizon?

Previously, Joby tested its eVTOL with pilots on the ground, using a ground control station equipped with state-of-the-art communications systems to guide it remotely. Those flights gave the company data on the aircraft’s performance in a wide array of operational conditions. But the beginning of crewed testing figures to be more consequential.

After pilot-on-board testing of the preproduction prototype is complete, the stage will be set for Joby to begin “for credit” flight testing with the FAA, using a full-scale production prototype. That model may be built at the company’s scaled manufacturing plant in Dayton, Ohio, which was first announced last month.

Dayton’s claim to fame is that the Wright brothers lived, worked, and opened the nation’s first airplane factory there (hence the Flyers mascot). It’s also home to Dayton International Airport (KDAY), where Joby will build its manufacturing plant on a 140-acre-site. The space is large enough for the company to one day install up to 2 million square feet of facilities. It is expected to produce 500 aircraft per year and create as many as 2,000 jobs.

Construction will begin next year, with full-scale operations scheduled for 2025. In the meantime, Joby will use nearby existing buildings to begin initial manufacturing activities. The goal will be to wheel the first service-ready aircraft off the production line within two years, in time for the company’s commercial launch with Delta.

In addition, Joby has commercial operational deals in place with Japan’s ANA Holdings and South Korea’s TMAP and SK Telecom to launch services in those countries. It also has an agreement with Uber—part of the 2020 acquisition of Uber Elevate—to integrate its ridesharing service into the company’s app.

However, all of this hinges on Joby’s ability to prove to the FAA that its air taxi is airworthy. Luckily, rivals such as Archer Aviation and Lilium are going through the same (lengthy) process. Archer, for its part, also received the FAA greenlight to begin flight testing its preproduction prototype in August. Lilium, meanwhile, is the only eVTOL manufacturer to obtain certification bases from both the FAA and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA).

The three firms—plus Boeing-owned Wisk Aero and Germany’s Volocopter—are all competing to be top dog in the advanced air mobility (AAM) industry, which is expected to take off soon with the FAA’s announcement of the Innovate28 plan for early eVTOL operations. Whichever firm achieves type certification first will realize a lot of lift.

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According to an NTSB statement, Delta Flight 1111 from Los Angeles had landed in San Antonio and was taxiing to the gate on one engine when the  worker was ingested into the engine at about 10:25 p.m. CDT.

“Based on information the Bexar County Medical Examiner’s Office provided to [NTSB on Monday], the NTSB will not be opening an investigation into this event,” the agency said. “There were no operational safety issues with either the airplane or the airport.”

The worker was employed by Unifi Aviation, a ground service company contracted by Delta Air Lines for ramp operations. The name of the individual was not released.

“Unifi Aviation is deeply saddened by the loss of our employee at San Antonio International Airport during a tragic incident in the late hours of Friday, June 23, 2023,” the company said in a statement Monday. “Our hearts go out to the family of the deceased, and we remain focused on supporting our employees on the ground and ensuring they are being taken care of during this time. 

“From our initial investigation, this incident was unrelated to Unifi’s operational processes, safety procedures and policies. Out of respect for the deceased, we will not be sharing any additional information. While police and other officials continue to investigate this incident, we defer to them on providing further details.”

FLYING reached out to Delta for comment, but the company has yet to respond.

This is the second time in six months that a ramp worker has been killed by being drawn into an operating jet engine. On December 31, an airline ramp worker at Montgomery Regional Airport (KMGM) in Alabama was killed after she walked in front of a still-operating engine of an Embraer 170. The aircraft was operated by Envoy Air Inc., doing business as American Eagle, and the incident remains under investigation.

The post Ramp Worker Ingested into Jet Engine appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

The airline is prepared to offer its pilots a compensation package that translates into a 21 percent pay increase in the first year, ramping up to a 40 percent increase by year four, American Airlines CEO Robert Isom said Tuesday.

The proposal came a week after Delta pilots ratified a new contract that increases salaries by 34 percent over the next three years, for a $7 billion cumulative pay raise for the airline’s 15,000 pilots by December 2026.

Staying Competitive

The effects of the new Delta contract cast new light on pilot pay industry-wide. Air Canada pilots, for example, said the increases mean Delta pilots earn up to 45 percent more per hour, Reuters reported.

American Airlines has taken note as well.

“That deal will determine compensation, benefits, and quality of life for pilots across the rest of the industry,” Isom said in a statement. “That means something extraordinary for American’s pilots,” he said, adding, “Our team members—including our pilots—will be paid well and they will be paid competitively.”

In addition to the average pay increase of 21 percent in the first year of a new contract, American pilots can expect “a much richer profit-sharing program,” as well as “a bump” in the airline’s annual contribution to 401(k) in the second year.

• READ MORE: Game Over for Regional Airlines?

By the fourth year, American pilots will see a total pay increase that will average about 40 percent, he said.

Announcement from @AmericanAir CEO Robert Isom today to pilots. He’s ready to match the dollars in @Delta pilots newly ratified deal, with even more quality of life guarantees. By year 4, narrow body captain tops at $475,000, wide body captain $590,000 annually. pic.twitter.com/0pEPCAM3Lo

— Doug Dunbar (@cbs11doug) March 8, 2023

“By the end of the agreement, factoring in base salary and increased 401(k) contributions from the company, a narrowbody captain at top of scale would make $475,000 a year—or $135,000 more a year than they earn today. A widebody captain at top of scale would earn $590,000 a year—that’s $170,000 more a year than they earn today,” Isom said.

“It is what you deserve, and it can be negotiated and made available quickly,” he added.

The post American Airlines Offers To Match Delta Pilot Pay Raise appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

The facility is located at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport (KATL) in Atlanta, Georgia. KATL has been the base for Delta TechOps since 1960.

The new facility has 155,000 square feet and includes 60 engine bays, with room for more.

Company officials note the shop will service GTF engines that are part of Delta’s fleet, alongside customer engines maintained through Delta TechOps maintenance repair and overhaul (MRO) business.

The grand opening was held on February 7 with a ribbon cutting ceremony that was attended by airline officials, state government officials and Pratt & Whitney leaders.

“This beautiful larger facility marks the latest chapter in our shared commitment to providing customers with world-class MRO service and exemplifies the growing demand for GTF engines,” said Shane Eddy, president of Pratt & Whitney. 

Features of the New Facility

Among the key features of the facility are a quick turn area, engine disassembly and assembly, module disassembly and assembly, work in progress (WIP), cleaning, shipping and receiving, and an administrative area. The new facility will also be home to several hundred staff members made up of engineers, technicians, mechanics, and support staff.

TechOps announced it would become an MRO provider for the PW1100G and PW1500G engines as a part of Pratt & Whitney’s global GTF MRO Engine Network making it one of 10 active overhaul centers and piece-part repair providers.

According to the airline, Delta TechOps is the largest airline maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) provider in North America. In addition to providing support and service for Delta’s fleet, Delta TechOps provides service to more than 150 other aviation and airline customers around the world.

“We are incredibly proud of our new engine shop and what it means for the future of Delta, our partnership with Pratt & Whitney, and our relationships with our other MRO customers,” said Don Mitacek, senior vice president of Delta TechOps and president of Delta TechOps Services Group. “The investments we’ve made in new capabilities and facilities over the past five years solidify our position as a strong global MRO provider and will enable Delta people to continue to provide exceptional service and reliability to our customers.”

The post Delta TechOps Expands With New Maintenance Facility appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

My employer had resumed hiring, as had every other airline and most flight departments and Part 135 and 91K operators. Flight training was proceeding apace, and United had just opened its new Aviate Academy. The coming year seemed likely to eclipse 2019 in terms of both training and hiring, but otherwise represent an evolution of the ongoing pilot shortage.

Instead, we got a year that surpassed all expectations and shattered industry norms. In 2022, Delta Air Lines is on target to hire 2,500 pilots—almost twice its previous hiring record—and United’s and American’s hiring is on a similarly frenetic pace. In all, the three legacy airlines accounted for 5,465 pilots hired through September, according to data from the Future & Active Pilot Advisors web site.

The low-cost and national airlines hired another 3,101, and the three largest cargo airlines, another 1,557. At my airline, the hiring has also been accompanied by strong internal advancement. For the first time ever, we’ve had new-hires placed into our largest international widebody fleets, the Airbus A350 and A330. Brand new line pilots not even off probation have been awarded captain upgrades (NYC 737), and pilots with a mere two years of seniority are getting the Boeing 757/767 left seat. Every time I come to work, there’s some crazy new development that has us all shaking our heads.

And yet, there’s nothing happening at my airline that compares to the earth-shattering revolution happening at the regional airlines right now. Understand that ever since they started in the early 1980s, the regionals have formed a sort of minor league system for pilots. Almost all of us at the majors who are from a civilian background spent time at the regionals, building the experience necessary to move upward. The regionals were notoriously low-paid, and for a time in the late 80s through mid-1990s, many airlines actually required pilots to pay for their own training. The attitude was generally “you need us more than we need you, and we know you’ll do anything for that dream job.”

But of course, the regionals do need pilots to operate—moderately experienced pilots at that, thanks to the 1,500-hour rule—and such pilots are suddenly in huge demand. As soon as the post-COVID hiring boom took off, the regionals’ attrition numbers skyrocketed to an unsustainable level. It’s not just that they’re losing captains to the likes of Delta and United; they are also losing first officers (FO) to Spirit and JetBlue and Atlas, sometimes after as little as a year of employment. This is doubly threatening to the regionals’ ability to staff their contractual flying, because few of their new hires have the experience requirements to upgrade quickly; they need a few years on the line first. The only solution was to increase their pay enough to entice FOs to stick around long enough to upgrade and fly as captain for a few years before moving on.

American Airlines’ wholly-owned regionals—Envoy, Piedmont, and PSA—were the first to do this, as I reported in a V1 Rotate video on July 1. Their pilot contract wasn’t up for renegotiation for another two years, but out of the blue, they announced permanent raises of 13 to 32 percent, temporary raises of 50 percent above that, and a 100 percent bonus for check airmen. This brought first year FO pay to around $90,000 (plus bonuses), captain pay increased to around $146 to $213/hour, and check airmen are making as much as $426 per hour.

For comparison, the top American Boeing 777 captain rate is a “mere” $342/hour. This development was particularly delicious because only a few years back, American had threatened its regional pilots with annihilation unless they signed concessionary contracts. Cause, meet effect.

Naturally, all the other regional airlines were forced to follow suit shortly thereafter or see their most experienced pilots leave for Envoy et al. Industry giants Skywest and Republic matched the new rates and made them permanent, Horizon nearly doubled its existing rates, and even notoriously cheap airlines, like Mesa, have been forced onto the bandwagon. Delta’s wholly-owned regional, Endeavor, resisted the longest, insisting that the flow agreement to Delta would be enough to entice new pilots—but, faced with triple-digit monthly attrition and single-digit new hire classes, was finally forced to give up the game last week. They actually put up higher numbers than the American wholly-owned carriers, increasing new-hire pay to $100/hour, which is more than first-year pilots on Delta’s mainline.

The obvious question is where this is all leading. The regionals’ cost structure was never that much lower than the majors; a decade ago, their CASM (cost per available seat-mile) was within 5 to 10 percent of their major partners. Now, it must be incredibly high to an unsustainable degree. Add to this the regional carriers’ financial and operational instability and the negative effects on their major partners’ brands, and it becomes hard to see a reason for the regional airline industry to continue to exist. I’ve been arguing this day would come ever since I started writing about the pilot shortage in 2014, and now it has happened. The only reason for the current arrangement to persist at this point is industry inertia and C-suite egos. Mind you, those are considerable factors, and the regionals may continue to trudge along for years, slapping very expensive Band-Aids on the problem. Or, a major airline may choose to take a bold step that changes the industry, and the piloting profession.

If I were the CEO of American Airlines, here’s what I’d negotiate with APA [Allied Pilots Association] and ALPA [Air Line Pilots Association], who I think would be happy to oblige: I’d keep the Envoy, Piedmont, and PSA certificates for the moment, folding them into a single regional certificate or into mainline later, but I’d bring all their pilots onto the American seniority list immediately with the proviso that all American flying, regional or mainline, is to be performed by American Airlines pilots. I’d specify that all future new-hires with a military background or 4,000 hours total time and 1,000 hours turbine PIC can bid mainline equipment if they choose, while those with less will stay on regional equipment until they meet those hour requirements. This arrangement would ensure American remains an airline of choice for both experienced pilots as well as those with 1,500 hours, while providing very predictable staffing for the regional feed. It would also make any academy or cadet program they choose to develop considerably more popular, with a strong field of suitable applicants.

Will American or Delta or United adopt my proposal or something like it? I don’t know, because there is a very rich history of irrational management in this industry. But it does very much feel like everything changed in 2022, and I don’t think we’ve seen the end of the follow-on effects.

The post Game Over for Regional Airlines? appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

The program will be hosted at CAE’s flight academy in Phoenix, Arizona, giving trainees a direct route to Spirit Airlines. CAE offers accelerated training at its academy and advertised a program that trains pilots from zero hours to airline readiness in as little as 56 weeks. 

“At Spirit, we recognize pilots are at the core of an airline. We have one of the youngest and most fuel-efficient fleets in the industry, and we fly to world-class destinations,” said Ryan Rodosta, senior director of flight operations and system chief pilot for Spirit Airlines. “We’re growing fast and creating tremendous career-progression opportunities.” 

To qualify for the program, Spirit said in a statement that candidates could apply after they complete flight training at CAE Phoenix Aviation Academy and gain 500 hours of total flight time. If selected, they will receive a conditional offer of employment (COE) from the airline and a Spirit Electronic Flight Bag (EFB). Spirit also said the candidates would be mentored by Spirit personnel as they gained the rest of their minimum hours required for an ATP certificate.

Rodosta described CAE as a great partner “because of their commitment to safety and operational excellence,” as well as CAE’s commitment to finding solutions to support student training needs.

The timing seems good.

This summer, JetBlue Airways (NASDAQ: JBLU) bested Frontier Airlines (NASDAQ: ULCC) to acquire Spirit in a $3.8 billion deal. Last week, Spirit said its stockholders approved the merger based on a preliminary vote. The transaction is expected to complete no later than the first half of 2024, pending regulatory approval. If it closes, JetBlue would become the fifth largest domestic airline, allowing it to compete with the big four airlines—Delta (NYSE: DAL), American (NASDAQ: AAL), United (NASDAQ: UAL), and Southwest (NASDAQ: LUV), who have also ramped pilot hiring.

• READ MORE: United Airlines Will Spend $100 million to Expand Pilot Training Center Amid Pilot Shortage.

At the same time, Spirit has been expanding its own network. The company said today that the program with CAE would support that. The airline said it plans to accept 24 new airplanes in 2022, bringing its fleet total to 197 aircraft, and 33 more airplanes are planned for delivery in 2023.

“This new program will ensure Spirit Airlines has a pipeline of qualified pilots as they expand their fleet and route network,” said Nick Leontidis, CAE’s group president, civil aviation.

The post Spirit Airlines Partners with CAE for New Pilot Pipeline Program appeared first on FLYING Magazine.