Currently at 4 years but past and present status is always a poor indicator in a changing environment. When I was hired in 2004, guys hired just 2 month before me spent less than 3 months on reserve and I spent just over two years. This was due to a huge hiring wave that I just happen to get in on the back side of. envoy has spent the last 4 years shrinking. I believe the union told us that we have about 50% of the flying we did before. We have sub 50 hrs lines this month with one reserve pilot for every two line holders. envoy has been taking block hours back from RAH and Mesa due to their inability to staff and poor performance. Expect the reserve time to drop drastically in the next 12 months.

envoy is in transition. Parker wanted us to shrink but since we are the only carrier in a position to handle more flying and afford to flow, he is adjusting his strategy to the market. We have a huge glut of pilots, partly for the training bubble of the E175, partly in preparation of the flow, and partly due to a plan hatched two years ago to shrink us. That plan has changed. My point is, although there are 4 year reserve FO today, what you will find 6 months from now will be a completely different story. Many, including myself scoffed at R Wilson's claim of a 2.5 year upgrade and 6 year flow. We now see his plan, how he hopes to accomplish this. With each flowthrough class, the time to flow is reduced. I have only seen L-Eagle upgrade close to 200 captains in a year one other time in 15 years. If they upgrade 220 pilots next year, that will be the largest amount of movement for over a decade. I also believe that their announcement of 300 flows and 220 upgrades are on the conservative end of the projections. Its likely those numbers may end up higher. No one, except eaglefly, can tell you with certainty whether their plan will work out. Choosing what regional to go to is always a risk. Do you think some of the pilots hired at RAH six months ago are regretting their decision? Will Mesa be in this situation next year? Its always a gamble but Parker has publically stated that the flow is his solution to staffing his regional flying. He is vested in it to make it work. (Mostly because he doesn't want to raise the pay, but I think before its all over, he will have to do this as well) As the supply of regional pilots becomes tighter, do you think he will invest his resources in the wholly owned carriers or to a contract carrier? Personally, I think we are going to see more carriers play out what is going on at RAH now. Its only going to get worse.

As far as the commute goes. BNA to ORD has a lot of commuters but many flights. Not sure about DFW. MEM to ORD or DFW doesn't have the frequency but much fewer commuters. Nice thing about MEM though, you always have FedEx. Never JS on them myself, but I hear its pretty nice.