NetJets or SkyWest

[T-handle]

A friend of mine (Independence Air soon-to-be-furloughee) has to choose between NetJets (Citation ultra) and SkyWest(CRJ). What are your thoughts?

 

[realityman]

What's important to your friend? Schedule? Money? Size of equipment (planes!! )? Benefits? Time to upgrade?

A lot to look at. I'm sure there'll be a whole bunch of negative posts about NJA coming up, but it's not a bad place. Unfortunately, things can be kinda rough under our current contract (especially making ends meet on our current pay scale!), but I'm not sure how much better they'd be as a co-pilot at Skywest. And I still have high hopes that we'll have a great new contract that'll make NJA THE place to be. The real question is how long is it going to take? And I don't have a good answer for that. 4 months? 8 months? 1 year? Your guess is as good as mine.

I think it'll be a tough choice for your friend. Make sure he talks to pilots from both companies (in person, not the opinions on this board!).

Good luck to your friend.

 

[Heavy Set]

What's important to your friend? Schedule? Money? Size of equipment (planes!! )? Benefits? Time to upgrade?

A lot to look at. I'm sure there'll be a whole bunch of negative posts about NJA coming up, but it's not a bad place. Unfortunately, things can be kinda rough under our current contract (especially making ends meet on our current pay scale!), but I'm not sure how much better they'd be as a co-pilot at Skywest. And I still have high hopes that we'll have a great new contract that'll make NJA THE place to be. The real question is how long is it going to take? And I don't have a good answer for that. 4 months? 8 months? 1 year? Your guess is as good as mine.

I think it'll be a tough choice for your friend. Make sure he talks to pilots from both companies (in person, not the opinions on this board!).

Good luck to your friend.

Good post. Your friend has experience on the CRJ and understands the airline "lifestyle." Make sure he talks to as many fractional pilots as possible before he makes the jump. Some pilots love it, some are not so happy with it. I have a number of friends at NJA would really enjoy it but they are clearly not happy with the pay situation for now. They are optimistic, though, that the situation will improve with a new contract (no idea on timetable).

That being said, Skywest doesn't really pay its pilots well either vs. other regionals but it might be seeing some serious growth soon (probably get PIC in 3-4 years). Knowledge is power - have him talk to some non-management related (i.e., interviewers) pilots soon.

 

[been-there]

Career wise your friend would be better off at Skywest. Airtran requires 500 pic in a 121 enviroment. FedEx requires 1000 hours pic >20,000 lbs. The ultra doesn't measure up.

Also over the first 5 years at Skywest your friend will make over $40,000 more than at NetJets.

For us to get a "KICK A$$" contract it is going to get NASTY, really nasty.

 

[Lrjet55]

To be honest tell him to take Skywest. To do it over again I would have probably gone the commuter route. NJA isnt that bad but to make the same money, as you would an F/O, take the travel bennies instead.

You will do less work with less hassle as a commuter F/O. Upgrade will probably be the same but we are losing a lot of people these days at NJA.

Ultimately in this market you take what you get. There are no guarantees to get the job at either location. If he is with "I" then tell him to walk over to signature one day and talk to some of the NJA pilots. They will be frank and honest.

 

[gunfyter]

SkyWest has nice leather flight jackets...

 

[NJA Capt]

NJA(FO) SkyW (FO)

1 27120 18240
2 28320 25920
3 29640 26880

 

[stingray]

I just spent the first few days of my last tour with an ex-skywest pilot that left there on his own for here at NJA. One of his reasons was scedule

 

[Lrjet55]

Without going into QOL issues how many days will a senior f/o or capt. work per month.

 

[Grizz]

Nevermind.