Regional selection

[rjdreamer]

First, let me say that I do not want to start a flame thread, I am only searching for advice. Thanks!
Now the ?. Which regional would you guys and gals recommend to aim for and why? I'll probably retire from wherever I start at due to my age upon finishing up everything and becoming hireable around the middle/latter part of next year.
Thanks to all who respond and should you desire to contact me directly, feel free to: [email protected].

 

[Prop Trash]

Start by crossing Continental Express off your list. Since they still have hundreds on furlough, it's not likely they'll be interviewing any time soon. At your age, I'd choose an airline with a well funded retirement package. I'd also choose one that will least likely cause you to have to up-root and move accross the country. Commuting while on reserve is one of the least desireable parts of an airline job (besides being furloughed). I'd choose an airline with lots of jets, with plans for bigger jets. I'd also choose an airline whose pilots are represented by the Airline Pilots Associaton. Comair, ASA, and ACA seem like good choices. Someone please tell me otherwise.

 

[boscenter]

As far as quality of life, AE is among the best. Great bases (esp. if you like the east) and decent schedules. And, the pay isn't too bad for now.

The only thing they have running against them is that rediculous 16-year contract. While they are still under that contract, they won't be able to catch up with the other regionals pay-wise.

But, if you're not looking to be "in-the-money," I have heard from many that AE is a great place to be. And they definitely have a promising future I would say.

Also, AE most likeley has the most senior group of pilots among all of the regionals. But, they too are in the furlough situation like CoEx, so they may not be hiring by the time you are looking. But, I think the light at the end of the tunnel is brighter at AE than at CoEx.

This is just my personal opinion. I know people who are not happy at AE, so it's not for everyone. Really, you need to evaluate what kind of lifestyle you are looking for and choose based on that.

No regional "has it all." Some have great pay but sh*tty bases, or bad schedules and good bases, or horrible pay and great everything-else. So definitely look at the "whole pie" when you decide, esp. since you plan to stay a while.

 

[flydog]

Comair, Sky West or Air Wisconsin

 

[English]

boscenter,

Do you work for Eagle? There is no way could be working AS A PILOT for Eagle, unless you've been drinking too much Kool-Aid...

Quality of life...I remember having ten days off a month after 18 month's seniority, an upgrade that would take four years, being junior manned on my days off, having to commute across country, being paid 18K a year...yeah, quality of life...

Decent schedules? Sititng ready reserve at the airport 20 days a month - don't think so. CDOs - don't think so.

Add your .02 worth here, Eaglets...I left a year ago, maybe it's gotten better (yeah right...

 

[boscenter]

Like I said, there are those who don't care for it... but by AE standards, 18 months seniority isn't much...

 

[English]

True...a good friend of mine that was hired there in early 1999 is still an FO and doesn't see any opportunity for upgrade in sight, as there are no more upgrades into the turboprops. Captain is the jet was at 8 years when I was there...but eight years seniority is nothing by Eagle standards.

 

[DairyAir]

Air Wisconsin

I don't want to sound like a recruiter, and I am biased but I was in your exact same position, looking for a regional that would afford me a good lifestyle if i wasn't able to get to the majors.

Unlike most of the other top shelf regionals Air Willy hasn't had its big growth spurt, it is going through it right now.
I know everything hinges on big brother, and that 9/11 through a wrench into the works but if we grow they way we hope, we will have around 1800 pilots by 2005, or so I 've been told, maybe 1200 pilots is more realistic. Currently we have around 600 pilots and the ones on furlough have finally begun to get recalled. If you were able to get employment here in the next year or so, in five years your seniority would be much better than if you were to go with one of the larger airlines that already has over a thousand pilots.

We are taking delivery of our RJ's, and by the time you would get here we would have zero propeller driven airplanes. For the time being we have the best pay in the regional part of the industry along with some fairly decent work rules. If you were to stay there for the long haul and were a captain on the BA146 or whatever they get to replace it you could look forward to a pay scale topping out @ $135.00/HR or so (can't remember the exact figure.)

We definitely have our problems but I think you will find that at any airline there is a certain amount of dissent among the ranks, but overall I have been very happy there and would not be too terribly disapointed if i had to hang my hat here for the duration.

Good Luck

 

[atpcliff]

Hi!

#1-Air Wisconsin
#2-SkyWest
Then follows a number of decent regionals:
Comair, ASA immediately come to mind.

All of the regionals are similar, which means you can find a number of pilots who are pissed about something or other, except for Air WI which I would consider a "Small-major" because of their pay scales and their professional operation.

Currently with furloughed pilots:
AAEagle
Chautauqua
Mesa
Trans States
Co-Ex (I forgot about their furloughs the 1st time I posted this!)

 

[skydiverdriver]

All good posts, and I agree with all of them. Skywest and Air Wis, ACA and the others are all good airlines. However, I'll bet that few of you have ever worked for more than one of them. I've worked for four different regionals, and I now work for Comair. I won't say it's the finest airline, but it's darn close. The only drawback is the current choice of bases (one) and that the strike set us back on our jet orders. Otherwise, it's very stable, we have a great major airline partner, and comraderie and employee morale are at an all time high. I wouldn't leave here for anywhere but Delta or UPS, personally. I know of several captains who recently turned down job offers from SWA. I guess they didn't want to start over again, or be at the end of anyone's list. Nothing wrong with SWA, quite the contrary, but this suprized me a bit.

Good luck to all, and I hope this helps.

 

[AWACoff]

Just to clarify some discrepancies. Air Wisconsin has NOT started recalls in any fashion. I repeat, NO RECALLS. I know because I am sitting on furlough. With Bombardier on strike, we will not be recieving our RJs on schedule either so who knows how that will affect recalls (except in a negative way). There were 39 pilots furloughed October 15, 2001 and there are still 39 furloughed. I apologize for being a bit harsh but it greatly DISCOURAGES me when pilots at my own airline are so misinformed while I sit collecting "food stamps". I had a 146 FO tell me 2 months ago that all furloughees had been recalled "a while ago". This was said to me when I was non-reving....unbelievable.

 

[macdaddy]

boscenter must be smoking crack. Eagle is the worst. (I'm currently furloughed from there.) Crew scheduling goes out of their way to make life miserable. The pay stinks, and pay comp "forgets" "accidently lost" (and other excuses) to pay you for the work you did. You have to watch your times and go over your paycheck like a CPA just to get paid for the work you did. Management is comprised of idiots that also make life there suck. They are constantly sending e-mail that are morale killers - changing hotels at outstations to crappier flea bags, don't do this, stop doing that; they even tried to restrict access to bottled water to the pilots in San Juan. Don't even get me started. I'll shut up before I write a dissertation.

I'm trying to get on at ASA, but I may never go back to flying professionally. I went back to my pre-flying profession when I was furloughed and I'm making good money (low 6 figures), home all the time with the family, etc..

 

[norskman2]

Good God, MacDaddy! What's your old (and now current profession)? And more importantly, do you have any openings???

 

[DairyAir]

chill out dude

Hey awacoff,

Sorry to if I put out inaccurate info but I was under the impression that twenty of the furloughed pilots were awarded D328 positions, as far as training dates go your guess is as good as mine. This was the latest info I had and if it is incorrect again I offer my sincere apologies. However I believe the "It Makes Me Sick" comment was a bit out of line.

 

[scudrunner]

How about NWAirlink, since no one mentioned them? Just curious.

 

[Saabslime]

How about NWAirlink, since no one mentioned them?

Depends on whether your talking about Express I or Mesaba.
At Mesaba we are pretty stagnant right now. No forseeable growth in the near future but the pay, workrules, and schedules are still above average even though our contract is six years old (we're in negotiations as we speak).

Don't know much about the pay, etc. at Express, but they are growing like a weed and will soon be all jet with all the canadairs they're getting.

 

[FlyingSig]

I wouldn't leave here for anywhere but Delta or UPS, personally.

I about fell out of my chair when I read this.... SDD, you want to join the dark side and help harm Comair pilots career's?!

Seriously though, I hope it's soon then later that you get the chance.....

 

[flyingtoilet]

If you're timeline is the end of next year, CoEx (whoops, I mean ExpressJet) should be hiring by then. We are taking delivery of too many RJs this and next year to have the furloughed guys still on the street by then. Hopefully we will have a better contract in place (openers this October) and of course being an all-jet fleet should tempt you as well.

 

[172driver]

What's the scoop on Sky West? I'm a west coast kid and would love to work closer to there when the time comes, although I would love to fly anywhere. Non-union? How does that affect things? Pay? Treatment? Competitive times?

 

[MartinFierro]

I'd agree that American Eagle is not the place you want to start with now. I'm on furlough as well, and as pissed as any other Eaglet, unfortunately. However, some of the good things were that there were no (zero) CDOs while I was there, although I have heard these have returned recently? Also, most of the overnights were well above the minimums, I'd say with about 15 hours being the average, and many longer than that. This too, I have heard, has changed for the worse though. Man, it seems to be going even further downhill at a faster rate!

 

[skydiverdriver]

Sig,
No, I wish to come to the dark side and HELP regional pilot careers, unlike people such as yourself. I believe that the majority of Delta mainline pilots would agree with me.

 

[FlyingSig]

Now I remember again why I don't bother replying to most of your posts. Did you get the joke part. That's what that little winking smily face thing means. Sarcasm....
I even tried to add a "nice" follow up comment .... guess I'll go back to thinking of you like I did after you posted that Delta pilots were getting furloughed due to their own greed.....

 

[328dude]

FlyingSig and SDD:

You guys should just get married and get it over with. Either that your settle it like men over a bucket of KFC and Kool-Aid. I love to see you guys get paired for a month together.

Just my 1 cent's....

 

[Beechnut]

Q:What do the Special Olympics and arguing on the Internet have in common?

A: No matter who wins, you're still retarded.




Either I'm going to Hell or my first born is going to pay dearly for that one.

S.

 

[dondk]

NWAirlink/Express I

Express I...

While we are hiring (GIA people only right now) and should continue to for the next year or so...

I would think long and hard before coming here...

upgrades WERE based on time, now it is on senority and that list is growing as all Saab guys are coming over to the RJ. Our Saab fleet should be gone in the next few months. The Bombardier strike is delaying everyone's order's so the reserve list is growing quickly (regardless of the strike it was already growing).

Pay... well, we are not the top nor the bottom but close to the bottom. Work rules... let me just say if there was a vote to throw out our union representation it would pass easily...

We truly have the top 20% living nicely and the rest barely scraping by. It is the have's and the have not's to the worst degree I have ever seen ( I have been with 2 other regionals).Do not think I am bitter, I am not... I am happy to be employed, and one day I will upgrade. I live life for each day and that is all I can ask for!


But the sales job our HR gives is the BEST in the industry. The pilot group (other than the top 20%) is great, the company.. it's a regional, what else can you expect?

I will end this with... if I had a choice of regional's with what I know today... Express I would not even be on the list...

 

[Diesel8]

I am also a pilot at Express Airlines I, Northwest Airlik, Pinnacle, whatever we are called this month. I would have to agree with everything he said. One thing that is something to think about is where you will be living and be based. At this company, you have DTW, MSP and MEM. MEM is senior, so forget it. The other two...well, unless you are from those parts, I wouldn't recommend it. DTW is a real dump. MSP is too cold for my liking. There are alot of us from other airlines who for whatever reason, have ended up here...and it sucks. I would not recommend it, but I would put it before Eagle. I would recommend the following:
1. Air Wisconsin
2. Skywest
3. Comair
4. Horizon

I would be keeping my eye on the wholly owned US Airways carriers...PSA especially. I just can't see how much longer they are going to keep going without a contract. I keep hoping that they will get a good one and really turn around, but who knows.

 

[Freight Dog]

Here's a Hawaii perspective:

We fly Dash 8's interisland. We're home every night - no overnights, so if you have a family, you can't beat it. Schedule is similar to having a part time job as you work either morning or afternoon schedule. The pay is an industry standard. Upgrade times vary from 10 months to 2 years, depending on what's going with Hawaiian and Aloha. When they are hiring, we're hurting since they pick a LOT of our pilots in one shot. Currently, the way it looks, more than half of FO's will be upgrading this summer and we're hiring. Most pilots who come here want to go to Aloha and Hawaiian so the turnover is big since both Aloha and Hawaiian hire with relatively low time if you have internal recommendation and live and fly here. By relative low time, I'm talking 2000 hours or so. This is a small community so everyone knows everyone.

Outlook: with Aloha/Hawaiian merger being called off, looks like both are gearing for a route grab in the mainland so they'll be hiring pilots which means quite a few Island Air pilots will be going to our big sister Aloha or to Hawaiian.

Furloughs: NONE, so far. After 9/11, we had I believe 2 newhire classes and another one starts Monday. So we've been very fortunate. The good thing about flying here is that even though interisland market is a dying market for 737's and 717's, it's still good for us flying 37-pax turboprops as many people commute interisland, not counting tourists.

Do we take furloughees? Yep, we do. The company however requires you to give up your seniority number at another regional. Don't know about being a major airline furloughee. I'm not sure how enforced it is yet.

Hope this helps!

 

[Wif]

Air Wisconsin Outlook

For those of you promoting Air Wisconsin, what is your opinion of the future of the company in light of United's current troubles? Do you still view it as a potential career stop? I had an interview offer with them about a year ago, but was already in an upgrade class at my current regional and had to decline. I'm curious if it would be worthwhile to try again to get an interview with them when hiring resumes.

 

[Wif]

Island Air

For Freight Dog,

Could you post your airlines payscale for FO's and CPT's or point me to a link where I can find that info? Do most of the pilots with families find if difficult to live in Hawaii on regional pay? Interesting that your pilots are home every night; my current job provides that same perk, as well. Not much else, though. Thanks for the info.

 

[Beechnut]

For those of you promoting Air Wisconsin, what is your opinion of the future of the company in light of United's current troubles? Do you still view it as a potential career stop? I had an interview offer with them about a year ago, but was already in an upgrade class at my current regional and had to decline. I'm curious if it would be worthwhile to try again to get an interview with them when hiring resumes.

The future of AirWis is bright. We're continuing to grow out of Denver, Los Angeles and even some in Chicago. ACA has had an explosive year out of Chicago was they have received most of the new routes for United. Our 328's are leaving ORD in the next few months (planned to anyway) and the jets that replace them are going into new markets. Another consideration is that our CRJ's are LR's not ER's. We have an extra 500 miles on the RJ's the two other UEX don't. (well, I know ACA doesn't, not positive if all of SkyWest's are ER's) This gives us an advantage to some degree.

United is NOT going to die. I know, I'm the first to say "yeah that's what they said about PAA, EAL and all..." but yo-nited is not in a similar situation. They'll survive, they'll be back to normal in the next few years.

AirWis has a pretty good contract. The union leadership is old, cranky, and very strong. We don't have the caving in that some others tend to find in their leadership. AirWis will never have the pay or the benfits of a major airline. No regional will as that is why they are regionals. Lower costs, less labor pay, etc. etc. As regionals go though, this is a good place to stay if that is your intent. Once hiring starts, anyone getting in at this time is going to be very well off in the next few years. I can't speak of your situation, but if things are bad and you're looking for quality of life over pay (since you'd be leaving the left seat of whatever with how many years of senority to go to the bottom of our list in the right seat) it is pretty good here.

S.