Originally Posted by deltajuliet

Glad you're doing research, and you seem well-read on the facts. But if you spend any significant amount of time on these boards (or talking to regional pilots), you pretty quickly get an idea of these companies' outlooks. And they're not good.

Envoy is being downsized, their future doesn't look bright. They're doing some further negotiations with American Airlines right now. Some employees are optimistic, many are not. Skim through the Envoy threads and you'll get an idea.

ExpressJet is in a similar boat. They're losing money, they have 50-seat jets that are no longer profitable to fly, and SkyWest (their owner) is allowing them to shrink as their planes stop flying (once contracts end).

Here's a big red flag with each of the airlines: their upgrade time is non-existent. Upgrade time is how long it takes to become a Captain. This is important because your end goal is probably to go to a major airline (United, Delta, etc.). To fly for one of them, you need Turbine PIC time (i.e. Captain time). If you never upgrade, or it takes you a long time, it takes that much longer to get to those bigger, better airlines.

A few regionals have upgrade times under 2 years (this is considered extremely fast). But because they're shrinking, Envoy and ExpressJet don't need Captains. This means almost no upgrades for the foreseeable future, and pilots are stuck as permanent First Officers with low pay and no real shot at the majors. Many have gone to other airlines and started from the bottom again.

My advice to you is to go to one of those other airlines with a good outlook so you only need to start at the bottom once. Pick right the first time. I have many friends at ExpressJet and Envoy, unfortunately none of them have upgraded and they'll more than likely end up going to another regional to start over. That's why I hope negotiations work out for Envoy, to prevent that, but we'll see what happens. Some of those friends have predicted their respective airline won't be around in several years, and that's a credible prediction.

Good luck to you in whatever choice you make, but just consider this: the regionals need pilots and you practically have a guaranteed job anywhere you want, so there's no need to commit yourself to any carrier right now. This is especially true if you have hundreds of hours of flight instructing to do first. Build your time, see how the industry looks when you near your 1000 hours.

Again, good luck with whatever career path you choose!