Horizon people, I wanna hear your thoughts

[aland504]

For those of you who work at Horizon, what is your overall feeling about the company? I know its a long upgrade, but I'm not concerned about that. How many days off a month do you usually end up with? How long are people are reserve? Is it easy to to do trades with others or does crew track not make that an easy process? So just anything you wish to add I would really appreciate it. My biggest concern is just how do they treat you?
Thanks

 

[sitbackrelax]

It all depends on which aircraft you are assigned. Reserve time can vary from a couple bids to over a year. Right now hiring seems to be slowing so it might be a while. Horizon uses a 35 day bid system; reserves get 12 days off, line holders get 13 min and can get up to 20 days off for very senior jet guys. Expect about 15-17. Trip trading is the same as most places it all depends on the coverage; most of the time you will have no problems.

Overall they treat you well here. The contract is decent and the schedulers are decent people. We all gripe here but it is nothing you would not hear anywhere else.

Personally, unless you live near PDX or SEA go somewhere else. Growth is noexistent and though the pay looks good it is not that much better than the others when the calculation of credit hours is done. For example I was told that SKW pilots can, in a 30 day bid, credit up to 120 hours if they really worked at it; QX lines typically credit 95 hrs and rarely exceed 105 hrs.

 

[aland504]

Yeah we are planning on moving to SEA. Is it easy to assume I would be able to get SEA right off the bat? That really doesnt seem like many days off out of 35 though; 13... Are there by chance many lines that dont have many over nights? Many day trip stuff? If Im not mistaken is their flow through with AS?
thanks

 

[messdaddy]

Flow through is a joke. AS not hiring next year, so no "Flow."

QOL is very different depending if you get the jet or a prop. If you get the Q200, you will suffer.

Q400, you can expect maybe 13-14 days off in 35. The new bid packet has 2 18 day off lines, some 15's and lots of 13 and 14.

Day trips come and go, and usually go senior, expect to be on the road.

Good crews, terrible management. The Air Group Way!!

 

[turbinesurgeon]

Yeah we are planning on moving to SEA. Is it easy to assume I would be able to get SEA right off the bat? That really doesnt seem like many days off out of 35 though; 13... Are there by chance many lines that dont have many over nights? Many day trip stuff? If Im not mistaken is their flow through with AS?
thanks

The negative - I hope you can live in SEA off of F.O. wages for a very long time. When you do upgrade, you will need another 20yrs to hold a some what of a decent schedule. There is no flow thru to ALK. There is preferential hiring for QX F.O.s. The company works very hard at making sure all pilots get paid the minimum, our hourly pay is ok but it is very hard to make money with our schedules. For what it is worth, if you plan on needing PIC time to go onto something bigger then I would look at somewhere that will upgrade you quicker. You will make more money as a second year captain at Skywest than you will make here as a ten year F.O. I almost forgot, there is a three year training agreement!!!

The positive - Excellent 401K, Good training. good maintenance, good equipment, and great people to fly with.

 

[On Your Six]

I would avoid Horizon as I have heard VERY FEW positives about the place. Go there knowing it will take forever to get the upgrade.

Does Skywest offer a SEA domicile?

 

[aland504]

OK, well thanks everyone for the info. I guess I am probably going to try somewhere else. Im mainly concerned about the 13 days off guarentee in 35. Money I can deal with, but my QOL is def my number one. Would love to fly the Q400...

 

[tomdav]

The negative - I hope you can live in SEA off of F.O. wages for a very long time. When you do upgrade, you will need another 20yrs to hold a some what of a decent schedule. There is no flow thru to ALK. There is preferential hiring for QX F.O.s. The company works very hard at making sure all pilots get paid the minimum, our hourly pay is ok but it is very hard to make money with our schedules. For what it is worth, if you plan on needing PIC time to go onto something bigger then I would look at somewhere that will upgrade you quicker. You will make more money as a second year captain at Skywest than you will make here as a ten year F.O. I almost forgot, there is a three year training agreement!!!

The positive - Excellent 401K, Good training. good maintenance, good equipment, and great people to fly with.

For newhires the 401k match is being reduced to 6%.

 

[On Your Six]

OK, well thanks everyone for the info. I guess I am probably going to try somewhere else. Im mainly concerned about the 13 days off guarentee in 35. Money I can deal with, but my QOL is def my number one. Would love to fly the Q400...

Colgan and Lynx (Frontier's regional out of Denver) are hiring onto the Q400. You will probably upgrade much faster and both. Colgan has a link at the top of this page referring to the Q400.

Good luck.

 

[F/O]

For newhires the 401k match is being reduced to 6%.

Ouch. That's a blow; they used to have a very respectable 401k....dollar for dollar match up to 15% wasn't it?