Delta Grounds Entire B-777 Fleet!

[BIGSKY 316]

 

[Bob Scott 7,715]

Delta's not grounding their 777s...they're retiring them permanently.  And accelerating the retirement of the MD-88/90s.  And furloughing over half of their 13000-14000 pilots come Sept when the CARES Act layoff moratorium period ends.

B u t t   u g l y !

 

[fluffyflops 1,845]

20 hours ago, w6kd said:

Delta's not grounding their 777s...they're retiring them permanently.  And accelerating the retirement of the MD-88/90s.  And furloughing over half of their 13000-14000 pilots come Sept when the CARES Act layoff moratorium period ends.

B u t t   u g l y !

 

Shame they couldn't bung us at virgin some of all that money they are saving.... 

[Ted Striker 338]

I feel sorry for all those who have invested heavily in training to become a pilot and mechanics. If you want a flying career now it sounds like the military is the only option.

Ted

[Rbass 27]

9 hours ago, Ted Striker said:

I feel sorry for all those who have invested heavily in training to become a pilot and mechanics. If you want a flying career now it sounds like the military is the only option.

Ted

Well that’s a very limited view of aviation, and overlooks an entire industry of professional flying. There’s a lot more than just 121 and military flying for those looking. I’ve said many times that the best career jobs in all of aviation, as well as the worst, are 91 jobs. Corporate/private, and even many 135 jobs are excellent, with great qol. Every operator is not a south Florida 134.5 fly by night operation. The good jobs don’t fall out of the sky though, and you really need to have great networking skills. Also, if you want to fly the most advanced avionics/systems and highest performance airplanes outside of military planes, it’s definitely not 121. I’ll add that if you just want to clock in, fly your route, clock out, and put nothing more into your operation it’s not for you. It’s not remotely like airline work. I wouldn’t trade my department for any airline job.

[fluffyflops 1,845]

13 hours ago, Ted Striker said:

I feel sorry for all those who have invested heavily in training to become a pilot and mechanics. If you want a flying career now it sounds like the military is the only option.

Ted

Or cargo.  They are looking for drivers. ACE in leige want 50

[Ted Striker 338]

11 hours ago, Rbass said:

Well that’s a very limited view of aviation, and overlooks an entire industry of professional flying.

 

7 hours ago, fluffyflops said:

Or cargo.

You both make good points and I'm glad to hear that there is still for demand cargo pilots. All I was saying is that for those that have just invested in a pilot or aviation mechanic career, a lot of the demand has disappeared almost over night. The pilots and technicians fresh from school are now not only competing with others just completing their training but also with the experienced personnel recently furloughed for a much smaller pool of aviation jobs in all categories.

Ted

[G-RFRY 1,706]

There will not be any shortage of pilots if airlines need them, present airlines are sheading thousands.

[HighBypass 2,339]

4 hours ago, Ted Striker said:

You both make good points and I'm glad to hear that there is still for demand cargo pilots. ..

Me too. The current chaos will change air travel for self-loading pax, but cargo flights and ocean-going cargo ships will always be necessary IMHO.

[Bob Scott 7,715]

I have a good friend who retired from the USAF and got hired as a pilot by FedEx.  His scheduled class start date for training was the 15th of Sept 2001.  While airline pilots all over the country were getting furloughed after 9/11, the only impact it had on him was they slipped his class date 2-3 weeks.

Cargo ops may not be looked upon as "glamorous" like the pax carriers, but that sector sure has gotten through every major economic downturn of the last 50 years much better.  With today's "just-in-time" production lines and expectations of instant gratification, it's that much more secure in its place.

 

[jon b 2,041]

There’s a really nice coffee table book I’m flicking through at the moment simply called “cargo pilot” written by a Cargolux 747 pilot.

Quite an interesting lifestyle. Instead of flying from A to B back to A ,2 days off and repeat like passenger airline pilots , they seem to take their jet on a 2-3 week world tour then get 10 days off in a row.

[WingZ 547]

As New Zealand steps down out of lockdown, we see winners and losers.

You'd queue for a haircut, some shops are running shifts 24/7 to keep up.
You can't get into a hardware store, all that pent-up DIY retail therapy needs servicing!

Air New Zealand has essentially fallen apart. There is no international passenger air traffic to speak of. The big Boeings are mothballed, and only a few regional routes are being serviced with Dash 8's and ATR's.

But Auckland rail commuters might see this as a win: they are set to get some of the best-qualified train drivers around.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/416612/jobless-pilots-swapping-wings-for-railway-tracks