Upgrade times at any airline are subject to change...drastically. Here's the deal at Republic, today.

Most junior guy awarded an upgrade class is a May 2005 hire. However, there are plenty of FO's above him holding out for a better deal (base, equipment, hell some guys stay FO's until they can hold a line as a CA and THEN upgrade to avoid any reserve), so don't let that fool you. Between May 2005-August 2006 there's only about 300 pilots on the seniority list. Should things continue the way they have, upgrade will probably hover around 2 years for those guys (still adding aircraft, high attrition, low number of pilots to upgrade). AFTER August 2006 upgrade time will probably increase unless some significant growth occurs. The reason is between August 2006-Present there's over 500-600 pilots in that portion of the seniority list (almost twice the pilots hired in almost half the time). It takes a long time to upgrade all those guys. Also, eventually we're going to stop adding 175's for US Airways. Looking at dates is good, but you need to know how many people have to get outta your way as well...

Now...we are also phasing out the Delta 135's with no announcement of replacement. The rumor mill has been pretty quiet except for people thinking that we'll see 170's or 175's replace them. But if nothing comes of it...well, that's 15 less aircraft to upgrade into.

Also keep in mind as the company gets bigger, you're getting more and more lifers on the property. Not everyone wants to go to mainline, I had several in my class that were planning on making RAH a career for whatever reason.

If everything stayed the same way it is RIGHT NOW...someone hired TODAY would probably expect an upgrade of 3+ years.

Of course...that could all change tomorrow too...