Originally Posted by
MaxPowers
Which would you rather be, a career 737 FO, or go to an airline that will turn over half of its pilot group in the next decade and has a wide variety of flying to choose from?
It's not nearly that cut & dry, Max. I think what it really boils down to, is whether you want to bet your career on Southwest's scope vs. Legacy retirements. Right now, and for the foreseeable future, ALL Southwest passengers are flown by SWAPA pilots...no other airline can say that (and don't give me ATN, because they'll all be SWAPA pilots soon enough). While the Legacies do indeed have many retirements currently with much more to come, their legions of joint-venture and code-sharing partners could easily take up some current mainline capacity. With their lack of scope, it most certainly is not set in stone that the Big Three will maintain five-figure pilot seniority lists in the years ahead. Exhibit A: Delta. Their mainline has done nothing but shrink since the merger and the new contract have become effective.
Tough choice. I honestly wouldn't know which way to advise a young buck lucky enough to have offers from each.