Ranking the Regionals

[your_dreamguy]

From First to Worst, How would you rank all of them?

I have heard the best ones would be:

Skywest
Chataqua
Air Wisconsin
...

Worst Ones are:

Mesa
Transtates
....

What would you have say?

 

[FlyFastLiveSlow]

From First to Worst, How would you rank all of them?


...

Worst Ones are:

Mesa
Transtates
....

What would you have say?

Are you kidding? How about Mesa, Gulfstream, Great Lakes, Corporate Airlines.....

 

[Pilot124]

Best....Mesaba 60 years and STILL strong

Worst...Transstates

 

[FlyFastLiveSlow]

Best....Mesaba 60 years and STILL strong

Worst...Transstates

You honestly think Trans States is worse than those mentioned above? It ain't the top of the line, that's for sure....but it sure ain't the bottom either.....Shuttle, Colgan, Big Sky, Boston Maine...etc etc etc

 

[Pilot124]

FlyFastliveslow.......Absolutely. I really enjoy working for Mesaba. 60 years says alot. I have been there 4 years and am happy. I have just seen first hand TSA and STL enough to come to that conclusion. FlyFastliveslow the day we agree I will buy you a beer! lol

 

[FlyFastLiveSlow]

FlyFastliveslow.......Absolutely. I really enjoy working for Mesaba. 60 years says alot. I have been there 4 years and am happy. Not satisfied but happy. At every place there is room for improvement but I personally am treated well and will ackknowedge how I feel on a public forum. FlyFastliveslow the day we agree I will buy you a beer! lol vbmenu_register("postmenu_391066", true);

I wasn't disagreeing with you feeling that Mesaba is the best. i think it's great that you like where you work! So few can say that and really mean it!

I was asking if you REALLY thought Trans States was worse than those seven or so I named above?

 

[Pilot124]

I just fixed it.....I re-read what I wrote and tried to fix it but not in time

 

[FlyFastLiveSlow]

I just fixed it.....I re-read what I wrote and tried to fix it but not in time

I have to say, you must not have ever experineced Mesa, or any of those little crap companies I mentioned. Try watching Corporate Airlines out of STL if you want to see a terrible airline. Like I said, I'm not going to say TSA is the best by any means, but I have personally worked for MUCH worse.

 

[FN FAL]

From First to Worst, How would you rank all of them?

I have heard the best ones would be:

Skywest
Chataqua
Air Wisconsin
...

Worst Ones are:

Mesa
Transtates
....

What would you have say?

You can overlook us "bottom feeders" at the FedEx Feeders, but we are FedEx's "regional".

I will have to say from my experience, we should be at the top of the "best ones" list and that's all I got to say about that.

 

[T-Gates]

FN FAL, you must remember, since we fly freight, we are already below the lowest of the regionals.

 

[FN FAL]

FN FAL, you must remember, since we fly freight, we are already below the lowest of the regionals.

hahaha...there I go again, thinking I was people!

 

[bobbysamd]

Best regionals

Horizon was a prime destination not that many years ago. It was the talk of ERAU-Prescott instructors, with several of whom being hired. SkyWest might still be a great situation but an SOB to get into.

Air Wisc was a great place years ago. I have heard reliably that it isn't so great any more.

How about Comair and ASA being decent places?

 

[House_X]

From First to Worst, How would you rank all of them?

I have heard the best ones would be:

Skywest
Chataqua
Air Wisconsin
...

Worst Ones are:

Mesa
Transtates
....

What would you have say?

Skywest
ASA
Comair
Air Wiskey
ACA

The above 5 have about the same pay rates and they are the top in the industry in terms of CRJ pay. In terms of workrules...Comair and ACA are the best.

I would like to add that Comair and their pilot group paved the way for these rates...

 

[Twotter76]

Skywest
ASA
Comair
Air Wiskey
ACA

The above 5 have about the same pay rates and they are the top in the industry in terms of CRJ pay. In terms of workrules...Comair and ACA are the best.

While I agree that all five are similar in terms of pay with Comair being the highest - as far as work rules go I would argue that the best are Comair or Air Wis. I worked for both ACA and Air Wis and I can tell you first hand that our work rules are superior to what ACA (Indy) has with the possible except of our reserve rules - which suck. While it isn't as good as it used to be - Air Wis is still a d@mn good place to work. You won't see me leaving for anyone on this list - in point of fact I willingly left one to come here.

 

[rattler]

Skywest? No way! A non union airline living off the hard work of other union airlines. The best place in my opinion is Comair. Those guys worked hard and sweat out 90 days on strike with out pay to stand up for what they believe in. They remained unified and stuck together. Skywest managment always offers a little to more pay to keep the pilots from revolting and voting in a union.

Best
1. Comair

Mid tier
2. Air Wisconsin
3. ASA (in negotiations)
4. CoEx (in negotiations)
5. ACA (had a good contract, took concessions for United and to help launch Independence)
6. Pinnicle
7. Mesaba (Could have done much better on last contract)
8. Eagle (10 year contract didn't help anyone)

Poor
1. Skywest (Non union, but stable...lots of money in the bank)
2. Chataqua (new contract, but could have achieved much better pay and work rules)
3. Mesa (will "really" fly for food)
4. Great Lakes
5. Commute Air (Voted "no" for ALPA)
6. Colgan
7. Air Shuttle

Worst
1. Gulf Stream

 

[I.P. Freley]

>>>Commute Air (Voted "no" for ALPA)<<<

Well, it's hard to argue with such devastating logic... So I won't bother.

And you can lose the "e" in "Commute", by the way.

 

[BRA]

Hey what happened to the man faced dog avitar...i thought it was awesome.

 

[gear_guy]

Please excuse my ignoranec, but can someone tell me what makes Skywest good. I have zero 121 experience.

 

[Halfcent]

American Eagle is one of my worst. They are well established, but have horrible pay and labor relations right now are terrible, very low morale. It's a very "Us versus Them" mentality with the management.

 

[zeroline]

Skyway

Lets not forget about Skyway. Id rank them in the mid tier. They pay isnt the best but they have ALPA and a good contract. Plus, upgrade times are less than a year for both the prop and jet. The fast movement is of course contingent on them getting the deal with Delta and ACA's 30 328 jets. BTW, even though the contract isnt signed, they are getting 2 planes on the 15th for mx to look at.

 

[MAX ZORIN]

Rattler, are you ranking the slowest upgrade time or lowest FO moral?

 

[StarChecker]

Poor
1. Skywest (Non union, but stable...lots of money in the bank)
2. Chataqua (new contract, but could have achieved much better pay and work rules)
3. Mesa (will "really" fly for food)
4. Great Lakes
5. Commute Air (Voted "no" for ALPA)
6. Colgan
7. Air Shuttle

Worst
1. Gulf Stream

What work rules did you have in mind at CHQ? Of course, I question the logic of any Red Sox fan.

 

[rattler]

Ok before everyone gets offended...I simply ofered my opinion. If you think I ranked your airline poorly, sorry. I will try to give some reasoning. Feel free to also express your opinion.

Did I rank them according to lowest moral and upgrade time?

No I did not. I believe the airline you are defending is CHQ? I ranked CHQ as poor for a couple of reasons.

1. We are in a time when most airlines are negotiating our first or second contracts since the introduction of the RJ. I rated Comair as #1 because they stood up for what they believed in and got an industry leading contract. And for the first year it set the standard. Air Wis and ACA both exceeded the Comair contract only to lose to concessions due to the troubles with United. In my opinion these 3 pilot groups made many sacrifices to improve both the pay rates and the image of small jet operators. The idea here guys is that every contract that comes along is supposed to get better. Not worse. For example: Comair gets 5 yr CA @ $68, Air Wis gets $70 then ACA gets $72.....get the idea? I have heard pilots say things like "we need to except lower rates so we can be competitive", "we should sign this below industry ave. pay so we can grow" "I won't be here long anyway, I'm going to a major" WTF? Here are some pay rate examples:

CHQ: 5yr CA $63/hr FO $34/hr
retirement: NONE
Profit sharing: NONE
401K: 2.5-6%
NEWLY SIGNED CONTRACT: 10/04

X-Jet: 5yr. CA $59/hr FO $33/hr
retirement: NONE
401K: 2-6%
SIGNED CONTRACT: 10/97

ASA: 5 yr. CA $59/hr FO $37/hr
SIGNED CONTRACT: (I BELIEVE 98)

Comair: 5 yr. CA $68/hr FO $41/hr
Retirement: B-Plan 2-10%
401K: 2.5 %
CONTRACT SIGNED: 01

So the point I am making, from 97 to 04 all your pilot group could come with is $4/hr raise for CA's? that's barely inflation. Thanks for nothing.

You asked about work rules. I am sorry I could not document the actual numbers, so not knowing for sure I will not post them. I couldn't find them on the web. If you have them and can compare them to other airlines work rules please do.

The next reason I ranked certain companies the way I did has to do with stability. Will USAir survive? I hope for all the families involved that they do. Unfortunatly, I believe the liquidation is just around the corner. What happens to all the USAirways feeders? I hope there is a backup plan. I have been furloughed and I don't wish that on anyone.

Next questions is "how good is the product that your airline provides?""What does your company own?""is there money in the bank?" (I am not a fan of SkyWest, but I do give them credit, they have alot of cash on hand. Very important right now, with so many others in trouble) "What does your company do for you?" "Can you trip trade?" "how many days off can you bid"" How's the equiptment?Jet? Prop? new? old?" "How's the maintenence? Is it in house or outsourced?"

Then I ask if all else fails, can you retire at your airline? Because the majors are shrinking, retirements are not being replaced. 737 flying is being replaced by 70 and 100 seat RJ's for very low pay. I'm sorry but $75/hr for an E190 is terrible. By the way what does the similar sized NWA DC9 pay? I think you get the point.

There is my view. Flame away.