My friend lost his job yesterday.

One of my best friends lost his job along with 400 other Midwest Air pilots. He had the honor of being the last flight Midwest will ever make. Milwaukee to Boston and back. Taxiing in he got quite a reception, 2 fire trucks spraying an arc over the plane with lights and sirens going. Still a sad sight though. Republic brought in there own pilots for less and everyone is gone, flight attendants and all. Republic even bought out Frontier Air and will oust there people as well. Dan is so over qualified he can't even get a job as a Taco Bell manager. And... right now there are 4000 out of work pilots in the us alone. I wish him well and if anyone knows of a good job for a 56 year old former pilot, let me know. I will pass it along. He has had to sell off stuff in advance because he knew this was coming. It is a shame to see someone who I've known so long have this happen to him. He is the Midwest pilot who kept all people safe after having an aborted takeoff years ago in Denver due to a blown engine. He did go through the fence and into a corn field but ALL walked away.

Re: My friend lost his job yesterday.

Sorry to hear about your friend.
Sorry they ever let Midwest Express become Midwest Airlines too.

My nephew's father-in-law was a commercial pilot for Delta before becoming a private corporate pilot 10 years ago.

18 months ago, he took a job in Malaysia, working for the casinos/government.

4 year contract, a ton of money, 2 free 10 day visits for each of his 4 daughters, their spouses, and their children. Enough money to get him to quit his corporate job, let his suburban Chicago home sit empty, and supposedly retire several years early.

So tell Dan to look beyond the US borders, there are opportunities out there.

Re: My friend lost his job yesterday.

Sorry to hear that. Could well be time to look further afield.

Re: My friend lost his job yesterday.

That is sad .I wish him all the luck.
Us older guys have it the worst trying to find employment.I have been looking for months.
I have been selling off my stuff too.It really hurts!

Re: My friend lost his job yesterday.

Roscoe has a very good point. He might want to look outside his local-ish choices. Not that it is easy looking beyond your comfort zone when you are a little older however he clearly is experienced.
He might want to look into some of the airlines (North American) that are doing better and are clearly better run and managed and some of these are not necessarily U.S airlines.
One of these and out of Canada, is called Westjet (www.westjet.com). It is a profitable airline that specifically develops and targets runs throughout North America. It is mostly in Canada however many of the destination routes are to the major U.S cities. They pride themselves on being a simple, no hassle, non fancy airline but they consistently out perform most North American airlines (U.S and Canadian).
I'm not sure of anything related to hiring policies or vacancies, etc but it is well worth investigating.
A good experienced pilot is a good experienced pilot...period.
Good Luck
BP
note: In surfing their website for a minute or two I noticed they have a field for job enquiries, including pilots (wanted), etc. There might be more to this??

Re: My friend lost his job yesterday.

roscoe said:

18 months ago, he took a job in Malaysia, working for the casinos/government.

Click to expand...

I'll bite. So how does one begin a search for jobs such as these? I've always wondered (a low priority wonder, but still a wonder) how people find these off-the-beaten-path jobs.

We have a friend who lost her finance job and found work at a gun making plant. Even that has WTF factor for me. I mean, was the 'gun makers' section directly following the 'finance' section in the paper? How do people find these jobs?

Re: My friend lost his job yesterday.

As best as I can remember, his previous corporate pilot job, took him to the area. Don't know if he sought them out, or if they recruited him.

Re: My friend lost his job yesterday.

Bigprairie1 said:

Roscoe has a very good point. He might want to look outside his local-ish choices. Not that it is easy looking beyond your comfort zone when you are a little older however he clearly is experienced.
He might want to look into some of the airlines (North American) that are doing better and are clearly better run and managed and some of these are not necessarily U.S airlines.
One of these and out of Canada, is called Westjet (www.westjet.com). It is a profitable airline that specifically develops and targets runs throughout North America. It is mostly in Canada however many of the destination routes are to the major U.S cities. They pride themselves on being a simple, no hassle, non fancy airline but they consistently out perform most North American airlines (U.S and Canadian).
I'm not sure of anything related to hiring policies or vacancies, etc but it is well worth investigating.
A good experienced pilot is a good experienced pilot...period.
Good Luck
BP
note: In surfing their website for a minute or two I noticed they have a field for job enquiries, including pilots (wanted), etc. There might be more to this??

Click to expand...

Westjet is a good no nonsense airline. I have flown with them about a dozen times. mainly for pleasure / vacation to Jamaica and the Dominican Republic. The staff are all shareholders in the company and they so far have been extremely good and very entertaining.

Re: My friend lost his job yesterday.

I've been off since the last Friday in July. Construction business is in the toilet around here, and nationwide.

I got a call for 2-3 weeks work last week. I "may" have 2 more weeks there. We will see.

I've lost my insurance coverage for myself, and family. I've NEVER been without ins. in 31 years in the business !!!!!!!

-OH- I turn 54 on Thursday of this week !!!!!

Re: My friend lost his job yesterday.

I got laid off while working on Labor Day weekend, half way thru that Saturday while I was working....nice huh ? the shop I worked at has closed its doors .... I'm 50 as of this past August....not much out there...good luck to your friend...wish me some too......if GM and the banks didn't get a bail out, I'm not sure what I would do !!.........

Re: My friend lost his job yesterday.

We have very close friends....he flew for 38yrs.....long haul...is European. Wife was a Purser.
They have just been here and showed him this thread.

He tells me:
the magazine Flight International (think that is what he called it) should have ads for vacancies throughout the world.
His friend, who he is in constant touch with, flies with Korean, and they are recruiting at the moment.....but they are a tough airline to work for.

When their airline looked shak'y, he went over to Singapore.
Many of his friends did similar with Singapore...Sth Africa...Brunei...Emerites...Korea.....DHL.....(2 other ones I have forgotten).

We have met and dined with many, as when they visit here it is party time.

The US market is the 'off-the-beaten-path jobs' lowke....been so for quite some time....something to do with cut-price fares tearing the industry apart....says conditions been slipping for a while....many US Pilots left for airlines outside States...(a lot with Korean).

Cheers
Phillip

Re: My friend lost his job yesterday.

Another possibility is becoming a flight instructor. I teach at a college with a flight instruction program and it seems like they're always looking for more instructors. Of course, then he'd be basically making more pilots who are looking for work in an impacted field.

They say the average American changes career three times in his life. I've been through four so far. Not looking for a fifth.