Skyway Airlines - any news?

[Edward Summer]

Any news on Skyway Airlines??? Last I heard from HR is that all job offers that they made in the past have been rescinded...they then wanted an updated resume to which I have supplied.

Any insight on their future needs??? Thanks!
Ed

 

[disillusioned]

Edward,
Not too long ago, Skyway was cancelling flights, because they were so short on pilots. Obviously, as a result, many people were recalled back from furlough. I believe there is less than 20 pilots left from original number of 60 furloughed.
I don't know how much you know about what is going on in Skyway, but you probably know what happened to 2 FRJs as well as order of 20 ERJs.
My guess is the airline will start hiring again sometimes next year, so if you don't have a job before, make sure to be a little aggresive ( i.e. don't just send your resume and hope). When the ERJ will finally come at the beginning of 2004, things will be definitely moving here.
If you have further questions, don't be shy to ask.

 

[StaySeated]

Not much in the way of news, for a company to release news they need to plan something for the future. Skyway and their parent MEH are not the greatest planners. I disagree with the fact that things will move in 04. The current "plan" is 1 ERJ every other month starting in 2004 with an unknown pace of 1900 retirements and possible sale of the 328s. Even if we do not get rid of any planes we will see a total of six more planes over the next 28 months. That puts us at 2005 and we definitely have to get rid of the 1900's by then as they will required new EGPWS that cost too much to make them feasible to operate part 121. So, I see little if any movement for the foreseeable future. For this reason, several current FO's are looking for work elsewhere. Morale is at the lowest I have seen in over four years. Every employee is paid bottom of the barrel wages. Several senior gate agents at an outstation recently quit and started at another regional airline. They made more on day one there than they had made after eight years at skyway. Employees just are not appreciated here. ACA is hiring, along with Mesa and Chautuaqa. All three of those airlines have bonafide expansion plans and two of them pay much more than skyway. Since I mentioned pay it is worth mentioning that the contract negotiations are going nowhere since the company's pay proposal. Details are skechy other than the fact that we were offered a 0% pay raise for starters and there is little potential for Skyway pilots to get out of the basement in terms of pay and benefits. Skyway has very little to offer in terms of pay, beneifits, upgrade potential, quality of life and morale.

Lets see, what can I say to end on a positive note. The pilots are great. The 1900 is a true pleasure to fly. The 328 does some cool things as well. Good luck, send out your resumes to everyone and get some interviews. Then decide what is the best fit for you and your career.

 

[Capt. Over]

tell us how you really feel...

Hey M.H. , I think you ought to publish some of your posts and send out a monthly "What's new at Skyway" or should I say Midwest Connect newsletter. Reading your posts is better than watching t.v.!!

Happy (and I stress Happy) flying,

R.D.