Sad to see that Omni is going down the same road…. it makes for a very unpleasant work environment. And if you were at least building time and/or being paid decently, it may be worth the hassle of coming here and putting up with it for a few years…. (maybe)….. but for the low wages at Miami Air, the disgustingly non-existent retirement contribution and the joke of a Bonus program (maybe a couple peanuts every few years if you’re lucky)…. it’s just not a smart financial move to come here at this point in time - in my opinion. It’s not what is was 5, 10 or even 15 years ago. You’d be hard pressed to find more then a couple pilots at Miami Air now that are genuinely happy to be here. Pretty much everyone who can is actively looking to leave. When you have senior first officers (close to upgrading) and captains leaving, that should tell you something. Management is starting to hold the carrot of “possible short upgrade time” in front of people to try and stop the guys from leaving and to try and attract new guys. But there is a reason so many people are leaving… and it’s not because upgrading makes life better here. If anything, your stress level goes way up! And if you need your 1,000 PIC… be prepared to be in the left seat for at least 3-4 years before you hit that number. But since the company can bypass pilots for upgrade, just because you get on doesn’t mean you’ll upgrade when you’re number is up. At least you’re getting paid the lowest wages for a narrow body in the industry!

For those that are interested in the Charter flying world and really want to get out of their current job (regional or cooperate or something), Atlas and Eastern are probably much better bets at this point- and something to look into. With Atlas you have a much higher take home pay check, better work rules, better rest facilities and wide body experience. We’ve had a lot of guys over the years go over there. With Eastern you have the same MIA base, an actual projected growth plan, and a company investing in itself! The potential at both is much higher than anything here.

I know some of the guys here say- “at least we have a lot of time off at home”, but at the end of the day, you need to be able to pay your bills, retire at the end of your career, and have an airline to go to work to when you do go to work. Miami Air is winding down- into what, your guess is as good as mine. But the planes are not being invested into, the company is not investing into it’s crews/employees, they are not investing into new customers or the ones we have, and it’s obvious that every loose penny is being taken. We’ve continued to shrink in the last 5 years or so. They’re letting talent from every department leave to competitors, and they don’t seem to care at all. There is no apparent care for the future of this company.

Regionals are paying up to $15,000 signing on bonus to pilots to try and attract them… plus other benefits like non-rev opportunities, KCM, trip trading/dropping, etc. Once you show up, they have some incentive to keep you happy to keep you there. One is paying a $20,000 per year retention bonus just for staying on property. Miami Air is still making pilots sign an $18,000 training contract… and once you’re in the door, they have no reason to care about your happiness, because if you leave, they’ll use your training bond to pay for the next guy in your seat. We’ve had guys leave during training because they realized what they had gotten themselves into and quickly found other opportunities! I don’t know the exact numbers, but there are probably over two dozen guys currently making payments on their training contracts because they decided they rather leave then wait it out. The Majors and Legacies are all getting new contracts with increased pay, benefits, etc. The industry as a whole is reacting to the “pilot shortage”… Meanwhile, Miami Air is still working off a contract from 2008 (which has the lowest wages and benefits in the industry for narrow body equipment) and still insists any new contract we might get will be cost neutral to the pilots. “Pilots will be lucky to come fly the 737 for us.” Welcome to the Miami Air way of doing business!

As I said before, unless something drastic happens here, we will be nothing but a one plane operation pretty soon doing some loose flying here and there… Either because we’ve lost all our customers and/or because we have no crews/employees left to actually operate the flights. The track we’re on right now is not good!

It’s a crazy industry, so do your research before you make any moves…. good luck!