Choosing a regional airline to work for

[no1pilot2000]

I recently talked to a few pilots who currently fly and have flown for regional airlines. I told them that I visit this web site to understand various points of view on the regional airline industry, who to work for and who not to work for and why. From talking to these individuals, I hear a common theme.

Whether an individual chooses to become a pilot for a regional airline either as a career move or to use their flying experiences to move onto airlines such as Southwest, Air Tran, Fedex, etc., do the following:

1. Research all the regional airlines THOROUGHLY!!!!
2. Based on the research, choose a few regional airlines whom you feel is a good fit for you concerning your short and long term career goals.
3. Attempt to contact those pilot(s) DIRECTLY who currently fly or have flown for these airlines and see what their overall opinion is concerning that airline.
4. After doing all the above steps, hopefully those who want to fly for a regional airline will make the proper decision on what airline they want to fly for and good luck in their flying careers!

 

[blackbox]

Forget all that. My best advice is Fly for an airline that has a domicile in your hometown. Or where you wouldnt mind living in. Horizon and Xjet have arguably the best contract in the industry. But If you dont wnat to live in any of there domiciles, its not a good fit. I think its worth giving up some compensation to work for an airline you dont have to commute for. Living in base increases QOL exponentially!!

With that said, I would stay away from Go-jets.

 

[CX880]

I recently talked to a few pilots who currently fly and have flown for regional airlines. I told them that I visit this web site to understand various points of view on the regional airline industry, who to work for and who not to work for and why. From talking to these individuals, I hear a common theme.

Whether an individual chooses to become a pilot for a regional airline either as a career move or to use their flying experiences to move onto airlines such as Southwest, Air Tran, Fedex, etc., do the following:

1. Research all the regional airlines THOROUGHLY!!!!
2. Based on the research, choose a few regional airlines whom you feel is a good fit for you concerning your short and long term career goals.
3. Attempt to contact those pilot(s) DIRECTLY who currently fly or have flown for these airlines and see what their overall opinion is concerning that airline.
4. After doing all the above steps, hopefully those who want to fly for a regional airline will make the proper decision on what airline they want to fly for and good luck in their flying careers!

First of all forget about the majors, assume that the regionals will be a career. You'll never get anywhere if you think in terms of the future airlines because it's not going to happen, you'll just be disappointed.

Your points are pretty well thought out and I would follow them. Ultimately it's up to you. I would say though that the general direction would be to have a nice quality of life or to have a quick upgrade to the turbine PIC. If you can answer that then you can choose accordingly. Consistant quick upgrade = turboprop operators, QOL would be XJ, Skywest, etc. but not necessarily jet operators.

Once you have narrowed down the airlines to 1 or 2 if you don't have any buddies fly them then I would go ahead and book a few flights and talk to the pilots of your flights. Most will be happy to help you with your questions.

 

[spg2bmd]

Live in domicile

I completely agree with what blackbox said, you will be so much happier living in domicile. Alot of the trips that are crappy to other crewmembers may be really good for you. Besides, commuting sucks.... hard.

 

[Cloudroller]

First of all forget about the majors, assume that the regionals will be a career. You'll never get anywhere if you think in terms of the future airlines because it's not going to happen, you'll just be disappointed.

Dont listen to this looser - never assume the regionals will be a career - the best regional is the one that you dont commute to.

CX880 - I know a lot of guys that went from regional to major

 

[WMUSIGPI]

I don't think XJ tops the QOL list anymore... but then again it's hard to tell being furloughed for almost a YEAR now and absolutely no hope of being recalled to the airplane I was flying there....

 

[tie1on]

you don't get to choose who you work for, no matter what you think. you have preferences only. good luck but don;t sell you soul to fly a jet, it is just another aircraft.

 

[FlySacto]

you don't get to choose who you work for, no matter what you think. you have preferences only.

good luck but don;t sell you soul to fly a jet, it is just another aircraft.

Point A: Totally disagree. Your first choice might not be the first opportunity that comes along but you don't have to jump on it.

Point B: Absolutely!!!

QOL is the big factor a lot of people seem to ignore and have to live with later. Commuting even 200 miles SUCKS!

 

[Deerkiller]

First off dont take career advice from someone who's a fool like CX880. People are leaving regionals everyday to go to the likes of CAL, SWA, FDX, UPS, etc.

Make your list of preferred airlines based on the above criteria(i.e. domiciles, pay, QOL). After you do that spam every carrier out there with your resume. You interview with whoever calls you first and you go to whoever offers the first classdate(except for GOjets ).

I personally went to SkyWest and now I'm at CAL.

Hope this helps.

DK

 

[YourPilotFriend]

Facing major consolidation in the industry, coupled with the inefficiency of the 50 seat regional jets, creates vast uncertainty in the regional job market. There are only one regional airline that has consolidation protection, and you don't want to work there anyway. A significant amount of new-hire regional pilots will receive furlough as a result of jets for jobs on larger regional jets.

As an example, if NWA and Delta merge, it will result in the loss of 500-1000 mainline jobs. Most of the overlap will be filled in with 70 seat regional jets that are already operating. Any regional operating 70 seat jets in the delta system will have to surrender their seats to flown backs. This same situation applies to all regionals.

 

[saabservant]

Ya, it's looking pretty grim for those fools, like me, who thought Mesabi, or other places, might work out in the long term after 9/11.
Most here with any awareness are trying desperately to get out. No aircraft coming with this merger madness.
Eventually, msa will have to find replacement bodies, but whom?
Only the most naive, low-time cfi's should consider flying at mesaba.
Don't make that mistake! There is no future here...you will not upgrade until maybe year 10, on a turboprop, which pays less than ANY jet at regionals or corporate.

A very sad state of affairs, and a huge waste, caused by criminal mgmt, which I hear is now in court arguing for increases in their bonuses!
So that morale won't go down, causing people to leave! Believe it....

 

[rickair7777]

I don't think XJ tops the QOL list anymore... but then again it's hard to tell being furloughed for almost a YEAR now and absolutely no hope of being recalled to the airplane I was flying there....

He said XJet (Express Jet), not XJ.

 

[rickair7777]

I recently talked to a few pilots who currently fly and have flown for regional airlines. I told them that I visit this web site to understand various points of view on the regional airline industry, who to work for and who not to work for and why. From talking to these individuals, I hear a common theme.

Whether an individual chooses to become a pilot for a regional airline either as a career move or to use their flying experiences to move onto airlines such as Southwest, Air Tran, Fedex, etc., do the following:

1. Research all the regional airlines THOROUGHLY!!!!
2. Based on the research, choose a few regional airlines whom you feel is a good fit for you concerning your short and long term career goals.
3. Attempt to contact those pilot(s) DIRECTLY who currently fly or have flown for these airlines and see what their overall opinion is concerning that airline.
4. After doing all the above steps, hopefully those who want to fly for a regional airline will make the proper decision on what airline they want to fly for and good luck in their flying careers!

Very good info! Two additions:

If a semi-decent airline has a large base in your town or in a town you would like to live in, pursue them agressively! QOL will be much better that way. If you can't live in base a 1-2 hour commute with NUMEROUS daily single-leg flights is pretty painless also.

When doing your research, focus on WORK RULES, not pay scale! Work rules have a massive impact on how much you actually get paid and your QOL. It will be hard to find these (or understand them) online or by reading a contract, so you REALLY have to talk to someone who works there.

 

[KeroseneSnorter]

Whatever you do in your career, always plan for furloughs and downgrades.

Odds are you will suffer one or the other, probably both, at some point in your career. The strong airlines today are the weak ones tomorrow, always has been always will be.

Very few pilots make it to 60 with the first "Good" airline they fly for. Odds are that you will start over at least once.

As long as you keep these points in mind and plan properly you will enjoy (mostly) the career.

I am sure that I will catch heat from some of the "less seasoned" pilots on here, but then again I am speaking from experience, they are speaking from the first time around point of view. I know only a few pilots that ended their career with the first Major that they flew for, and only 2 that were never furloughed. Oddly enough the guy with the best career I have ever seen (never furloughed, only downgraded once, retired on the same list he was hired on) started with a dipsh#t local DC-3 carrier in the mid sixties and finished up on a 767 all with the same airline. Every one of the powerhouse carriers that he really wanted at the start of his career are now gone. (Eastern, Pan-Am, Braniff, TWA)

Always have a back up plan, and never never buy a house that you can afford on major airline pay, always buy one that you can afford on Charter pay, at least until you are looking at 10+ years of seniority.

 

[belchfire]

Living in base is a really good thing. A short, one leg commute on line from a city where noone senior to you lives is a close second. (911 took that situation away from me).

There is much to be said for QOL. Living in base helps that greatly. Number of days off is a real factor too. Just learn to live on the crappy gaurantee the first year and don't get into debt over it. I don't know what is going on at Piedmont right now but they and CC Air used to be the shizzel for turboprop-only operations-the rest of the outfits that are only tprop pax operations that I know of suck the rats anum unless you have some golden connections that make the quick upgrades worth chancing scurvy on the diet you will be able to afford.

 

[Sig]

LMAO! Rat's anum. That's GOLD.

How's the whale treating you, Belch?

 

[CX880]

Dont listen to this looser - never assume the regionals will be a career - the best regional is the one that you dont commute to.

CX880 - I know a lot of guys that went from regional to major

No ********************, but if another 911 happens you will definitely stay at a regional longer if not make it a career that's all I'm saying. And if you happened to choose a regional with bad work rules and quick upgrades for the thought of moving to major quickly it would really suck for you. Choose wisely.

 

[Quack]

LIVE IN BASE!!! Believe me from experience, you may think it's great to move somewhere else for a little while, but after that, you find yourself STUCK in the mud maybe somewhere you don't really want to be. No one told me this and now I am stuck working for a sub par carrier living in the NE. Not to bash the NE, but I am not from here and never wanted to end up here (original base was closed). So with that being said, know where you really want to live for the next five to ten years, and go for that regional. It doesn't pay to chase after an upgrade, or contract that might pay a couple dollars more. It pays to leave work with the peace of mind that you don't have to commute, and you don't have to go home to crappy city you don't want to be in.

 

[Flex81]

are you single? if so, then don't chase QOL and certain domiciles. Chase the upgrade... tough it out and get some PIC baby. (except gojet) Even if you end up in a crappy place, you will make friends and it will not be that bad.