Originally Posted by
baqnav
[RIGHT]
EVERY (as you say) captain at WN do not have those qualifications (hours). However, they are fully qualified. And 50/50 miltary is misleading. I AM a retired USAF pilot and most airline pilots are not from a military background. Only one percent of Americans have served. They are just as safe as I am.
Look at the hiring statistics and products that airlines have been putting out at job fairs via pilot recruitment. Every new pilot hiring class across the Big 4, FEDEX and UPS over the last 5 years has been about a 50/50 mixture of military and civilian pilots.
Every Captain at Southwest has been on property for a minimum of ten years -as a matter of fact the most junior captain has been there since 2008, that’s 11 years JUST at Southwest. At the time of hiring, Southwest required you to have a minimum of 1000 Multi Engine turbine PIC-that’s one thousand hours of captain time in a multi engine turbo prop or jet aircraft. You also had to have an ATP (a minimum of 1500 flight hours). Most civilian newhires at Southwest have over 5000 hours-before they even work a day st Southwest-many even have 8-10k hours
before they even interview. Most military pilots have
1500-3500 hours
before they even interview.
So yeah, I’d guaranty that every (non management) southwest captain has over 8000 hours.
Also an Air Force Pilot, following the industry closely and going to job fairs.