Originally Posted by
Jetlife
Incorrect on many points. 2 DA200 CA bids went up today. I have seen several guys in my fractionally short time here move fleets, to the 350, DA2000 etc.
People are moving airplanes if they wish, and they have the seniority...
Spoken like a guy who just got hired...
Aug 2005 is/was the date of the most junior Captain hired into the Beechjet.... And that was only because of many bypasses...
That guy probably upgraded around 2007..... There hasn't been an upgrade to anyone Junior to that guy in 8+ years...( let alone upgrades in general.)
I haven't seen the seniority list in 2-3 months... But I'd guess guys getting hired this year have atleast 700 pilots ahead of them for upgrade....with no retirement age and no real growth even at 50 upgrades a year ( which NJA hasn't seen in almost a decade) it would take 14 years conservatively....
Remember, NJA had 3100 pilots and over 500 a/c on property in 2009... And managed to get by with the current Captain staffing.... NJA is no where near 500 a/c to my knowledge....
Bottom line, upgrades are ridiculously long and no real a/c movement....
NJA is a alright job for a young FO, lower time guy or someone coming from a "lesser" QOL company.. ( I got hired around 29 so $80k living in a cheaper town was a pretty good deal..) but the schedule sucked and at that time upgrades were still a possibility.... But approach your 40's and being an 10 year FO on the 18 day for less than $100k is not so appealing.
I agree that NJA will be compared to XOJet, Flex and the like.... Bottom line is the general public still considers the popular Legacy/Major airlines the end all be all, and no matter what the NJA pilots experience/background/job requirements, no judge is going to compare them to a Delta long haul international pilot....
The only way NJASAP gets SWA +1 is by beating the company down enough that they give in...