Originally Posted by
phoenix 23684
I have a question for the Skywest pilots here. Is it a norm for you to believe that Skywest is on par with the national carriers? (Virgin, JetBlue, spirit, frontier). I heard a few pilots say they would not consider a national as it would only be a lateral move.
First as far as comparing a regional like Skywest to a national carrier no I don't think anyone at Skywest considers them the same thing.
For the "lateral move" argument Look at it from a Captain vs First Officer perspective. A First officer who makes $40/hour at Skywest would definitely consider it a huge upgrade to go to Jetblue and start at $49/hour first year, then $76/hour 2nd year.
A captain at Skywest who has some seniority and makes $90/hour is going to probably consider it a lateral move or worse in terms of pay. That captain would have to start over at the bottom of the seniority list and take nearly a 50% paycut to go to a place like Jetblue.
The people you heard calling it a lateral move are probably talking about the pay, not the airline itself. In terms of pay it kind of is a lateral move for a moderately senior Skywest captain to go to Jetblue. I can see why a lot of them aren't making those moves.