Horizon airlines

[Obi-Wan]

I was wondering what kind of place horizon was to work for. how long are the upgrades. Whats the quality of life. Hows the pay. what doe they fly etc etc... Any information would be appreciated

 

[Q200_FO]

I like it here at QX....

The upgrades will take a while just like anywhere else because attrition is pretty much near zero. No one leaves Horizon to go to another regional, they leave to move up the ladder not across it. Quality of life I'd say is very good but that depends on who you ask. We're tweaking the fall schedules right now to make them more efficient for the company and for the pilots who fly them. Win, win once is complete and implemented. I don't have any complaints at all. If I were to get stuck here for some reason I'd be completely fine with it. This is an airline you can actually retire from. We had the best contract in the regional industry right before 9/11, have no clue if we still do or not. You don't make a fortune starting out of course but you're not getting paid $15 per hour like at brand X airlines either. We fly the Bombardier Q200, (dash 8-200 for people who don't know) the Q400 and the CRJ700. We retired the F-28 last spring so they're gone. And no we're not supposed to be hiring for the rest of the year last I heard. Of course we all know nothing is written in stone either. Anything else you'd like to know?

 

[sbav8r]

Does QX have any preferential hiring? Some places like Mesa hire in house and others seem to have a preference of hiring grads from various schools. Does Horizon have any preference? I also have heard that they prefer an applicant to have AK time. Is that true? What is the prospect of growth, do you have more CRJ purchases going through?

 

[Green Banana]

Horizon hires a lot of UND'ies as well as Central WA U. people. I would not say that it is pref. We have a few more RJ's to get next year. I am not sure of the sched as of now. All I know is that the company is trying to "Adjust" the delivery. Most people think that means less RJ and more Dash 400's. Most of the places that we fly, we are the only game in town. So when you look at the cost of an RJ versus a Dash (they seat the same amount, 70pax) the dash is pennies on the dollar. We are Alaska's bitch. We will fly out to get pax for them. We go into new airports until we make a profit, then pass the route to alaska. There is a large pull of pilots to alaska air. That is good. As for alaska flying time, there are a lot of people that have done that, but I know more who do not. We don't fly there!

 

[Q200_FO]

,

Ditto

 

[de727ups]

CWU

"Horizon hires a lot of.....Central WA U. people. I would not say that it is pref."

Hummm....went to a CWU breifing put on by the head of the program for a bunch of high school kids in Yakima recently. He was highly touting the fact that Horizon has a preferential hiring program with CWU. He did admit to me privately that as long as Horizon isn't hiring, such a program is of little value.

 

[Singlecoil]

We are Alaska's bitch.

Who's yo Daddy?

 

[Green Banana]

blow me singlecoil!

 

[AK737FO]

Big Daddy

Now be nice boys... We are all a part of the "Alaska Family"...

Maybe I got it wrong, but isn't a regional suppose to feed the main line and build up new routes only to hand them over later?

For years I wondered why we were not putting 73's into BOI considering the frequency of QX flights. Finally somebody at Angle lake copped a clue.

Same thing today between SEA and PDX. What is it now, close to 20 flights a day for QX? You telling me we couldn't cut the freq down a bit and stick a few 73's in there?

 

[Singlecoil]

Re: Big Daddy

Now be nice boys... We are all a part of the "Alaska Family"...

Its all good, we've spent a few bids together slugging it out in the Dash. Family members do get to bicker once in a while, don't we?

 

[ALASKAN AVIATOR]

Maybe I got it wrong, but isn't a regional suppose to feed the main line and build up new routes only to hand them over later?

Maybe I’ve got it wrong, but isn't a mail line carrier supposed to have a solid partnership with it's regional with certain incentives like say, I don't know, maybe something called a flowthrough agreement?

 

[T-Gates]

Maybe I’ve got it wrong, but isn't a mail line carrier supposed to have a solid partnership with it's regional with certain incentives like say, I don't know, maybe something called a flowthrough agreement?

Flow-throughs are real great, right up until the toilet backs up and starts flowing back right back at ya' (i.e. Eagle and CoEx)

--03M

 

[ALASKAN AVIATOR]

True, but AS doesn't have their problems either....

 

[AK737FO]

Flow up, not down...

I have no problem with a flow up program. Alaska has a pretty large number of ERA and Horizon pilots, and a fair number from PenAir.
To Alaska managements credit, when Horizon had guys on the street, they increased the number of interviews from Horizon.
It could be argued that it is more expensive for the "Air Group" to hire a Horizon pilot - train them at Alaska, and then train their replacement at Horizon. The key to getting an interview, regardless of who you work for is the Silver Bullet program and the experience level they are looking for. After the phone call, it's up to you to get it done.

 

[cointyro]

Silver bullet program? What's that?

 

[dogg]

"SILVER BULLET" was the unofficial name of the employee referral program at Alaska Airlines. I think it is now known as simply the referral program. I think that it is like a letter of recomendation on steroids. The pilot that recomends someone is included in the process until you are hired or not.