Interview has changed a bit since last posting. I interviewed in mid February 03. I highly recommend that if you are serious about getting the
job to get a few hours in the sim before the interview.

Day starts at 8am at the Air, Inc. HQ in ATL. AirTran recommends the
Diplomat Hotel, mainly because they offer a ride to and from the airport as
well as Air, Inc. The problem with this is that the shuttle is totally
unreliable. Of the 6 times I needed to use it, I was on it twice, and this
after waiting 45 minutes. The Diplomat shares this shuttle with 4 other
hotels and you are last on the list. The hotel is undergoing a much needed
renovation, there are no restaurants, and it is basically a sub-par hotel.
Bottom line, stay elsewhere.

The interview starts with a presentation of the company by Jill Nidifer.
Very pleasant and relaxing way to start the day. Gives you an overview of
where they came from, where they are, and where they are going. At the
conclusion of this, she introduces the pilots who will be conducting that
part of the interview, as well as the instructor(s) who will be evaluating
the sim portion. They each talk about 10 minutes, talk about the sim, and
hand out 4 different profiles. It is not a VFR pattern anymore. A raw data
ILS and some turns are the main parts, however each profile has a few
specifics. No surprises though, and no technical "stump the dummy" type
questions. I won't go into all the specifics of the company or the sim, they
will answer those questions for you at the interview. 8 of us interviewed
the day I was there. 4 furloughed USAir, 2 RJ captains, and 2 t-prop
captains. Everyone knew someone and had solid 121 PIC time.

There are 4 parts that can go in no particular order. Each lasts about 10
minutes.

HR- With Jill N. Questions include: Why AirTran? What do you look for in a
company. What do you expect your 1st year to be like? What do you expect
from us? What is your greatest accomplishment professionally? Very easy
person to talk to.

Pilot 1 & 2- People who do this portion are Capt. Brownlee and Capt. Powell,
both are very nice guys, nonconfrontational. CRM type questions. Have some
good stories about when you were uncomfortable, when you goofed up, what a
professional is to you, what CRM is to you. They prefer the answers in a
situation/action/result type format, although they don't tell you this it's
how they write down your responses, and if you don't give the story like
this it will prompt them to ask more questions.

Sim- see above. Do the prep and it's a non-event. It's expensive, but worth
it.

At the end of your 4 events you are free to go. They tell you a week to 10
days for the results, although I have heard of it being less to considerably
more.

I was called for a last minute interview about a month after sending in my resume. I know no one at Airtran. They send you an app to complete prior to the interview.

The interview was pretty low key. It started with the HR person, Jill Nidiffer giving a brief overview of benefits, etc, then Dan Swann, Chief Pilot, giving an overview of company growth, time to upgrade (sometime after the 2 yr mark), as well as other pilot oriented info. Then the DC-9 chief pilot, (the name eludes me) gave a quick overview of the sim profile.

The sim ride was in the DC-9, of course, and merely consisted of a VFR Take off followed by a VFR pattern, turn to downwind with a descent on that leg, followed by turn to base, then final to a VFR landing. The ILS was even tuned up as a back up. The sim profile was there just to ensure you have the most rudimentary airmanship skills.

The sim was one-on-one with each of three people. The HR rep, the Chief Pilot and the Director of 717 training. All were extremely cordial and low key. The questions they asked were all softball taken from the resume, i.e. why Airtran, what do you want from a company, etc. The Chief Pilot asked a CRM related question and a " tell me about a problem you had in the cockpit" type of question. No technical questions. Airtran sounds like a good growth company with good equipment.

The only unsettling factor was everytime I asked a pilot or f/a how they liked working for the company I never got an answer that showed much enthusiasm or support for the company. The pilots seemed to be there just as a steppingstone to the next level in the industry. Pay starts off pretty low and the only domicile is Atlanta, though they have no policy that requires crew to actually live there (despite a rumour I had heard).

Positive space travel provided by AirTran from one of the airports within their route structure. Connect through Atlanta. Interview held at Flight Safety Miami. Approx 20 interviewees. All male civilians.

Company briefing by HR then discussion on interview process: 3 interviews (HR, operational, technical) and sim check. Interviewees broke into two groups: one group to do the interviews and one group to do the sim. HR interview was just a discussion of your application (e.g. why left jobs, speeding tickets, incidents, grades,etc.). Operational interview was conducted by B717 cpt. Consisted of various subjects (Why AirTran, what can AirTran offer you, the first 3 things you think about when given a holding clearance) Sim check in a DC9 by DC9 captain. No tricks. Two interviewees at once then switch seats (i.e. CRM utilized). Takeoff and level off. Steep turns. Constant rate descents. Visual approach backed up by ILS. Landing. Technical interview was questionable...could be because it was late.

That is, it was just a "chit-chat" session talking about the industry, current events, how horrible or wonderful the plane and/or operations you fly in is, etc. Very personable however. Finished approx 2300.

Received DC9 job offer by mail 2 weeks later.

I was interviewed on 8/19/99 in ATL three mini interviews with chief pilot , fleet training person and an H.R
person
all seperate....they want to know about you, going thru resume and app. some
situational type questions,,,,tell us about what you are looking from
employer....etc
very easy.......say that you want to move to atlanta......they do not like to
hear about commuting....dc9 sim ...climb 4000 250kts,,,decent to 3000,,,first
slow to 160....on the climb take off epr, then when get close to
250,,,,,70%N1 is the ticket......idle power to slow to 160 the 70%N1 again
left seat in istructor will put flaps and gear etec ils to visual by radar
vectoring......offered the job 7 days later.,.....very relaxed
interview,,,try to be cosistent with all the answers to everyone...i think
they compare notes.........

Intervewed May28th, Showed up at 9:00 A.M. for the interview at AirTran headquarters. When you walk in the door, sign in at the reception desk. She will tell you where to go (Down the hall 'till you see a glass wall take a left and you will see a place to have a seat). When everyone is there, they take you to Comair Aviation Academy via bus. This is where the interview is conducted.

Everyone is put in the same room and Human Recoureses, a Chief Pilot, and the simulator instructor, give you detalis on the company. After that, persons are picked out of the room individually for the interviews. They do them all at once. You fly a Frasca 142, interview with Human Resources, interview with two Captains that fly the line. Not necesarily in that order.

Overall, it is a "Get to know you interview." They want to know why you want to be here. There is a two year traing bond worth $12,000.00. It's deductible at $500.00 a month.

They were not shy to say that they are really short of pilots. Send them your resume via fax or mail.