Chicago Express to ATA

[deceptibum]

Has anyone heard or have self-stories about moving on from a wholly-owned regional to it's major airline partner. Specifically Chicago Express to ATA? At some airlines it's the kiss of death to move from your owned regional to the affiliated major.

 

[vclean]

Kiss of death? How so?

 

[DorkProp]

Same with US Airways and PSA, PDT, and ALG. Try telling a mainline dad that moving from PSA to mainline is horizontal. Actually, that might actually be fun to say while keeping a straight face and see his reaction.

 

[deceptibum]

It is almost an unwritten rule that whatever regional you work for, will be a lot tougher to be hired by the mainline affiliated with that wholly-owned. Reasons.......turboprop/turbojet capt at regional becomes FO at mainline.....training cost. Need to upgrade an FO to CA at regional....training cost. Need to hire a new FO to fill at the regional....training cost. Whereas hiring someone at a major from a completely unaffiliated and unrelated regional only leads to one training cycle. My question was have any Chicago Express guys/gals moved on to ATA and how frequent is it such as Island Air and Aloha?

 

[Freight Dog]

I made the move from Island Air to Aloha, and so did many before me, and after me as well. From what I gather, Aloha offers preferential interview/hiring for Island Air pilots. You still have to pass the interview, but out of around 40 Island Air pilots that interviewed at Aloha in the last year and a half, only 2 did not get hired. I'd say those are pretty good odds. Also bear in mind that Island Air has a total of 55 pilots or so.

 

[WSurf]

Yes, I have a friend that is flying for Chicago Express and has just been hired by ATA. He was a captain on the Saab for 2 years, and he is now in ATA's pool.
And you are wrong about training cost. If mainlines dont hire there wholly owns, they simply go somewhere else. So now u still have to train at the regional. And mainline still has to hire. If you have a flow, I think people will have a tendency to stay at that regional longer for a job at mainline. When mainline US Airways wasn't hiring our Piedmont guys, we still lost a ton to (at the time) United, American, Southwest etc..... And US Airways had to hire a bunch of people for the regionals. I personally think it save money to have a flow thru... just my opinion.

 

[Pickle]

There are several ex-Chicago Expressers people here at ATA, but I think that ATA and C8 have sort of a "gentlemen's agreement" not to hire anyone from C8 until they have been a captain for 2 years or so. Then again, I could be totally wrong.

 

[WSurf]

No, I think your right.

 

[deceptibum]

thanks for all the info guys!

 

[antney]

I thinkn your right about the 2 year thing, but most of our captains are under 2 years or right at the 2 year mark. Well if we just went with ALPA last winter, things might be different in regards to some offical flow through, but for now its anyones guess.
Anthony