Originally Posted by
DenverPilot8
As I'll be starting with Frontier soon I've been reading as much as I can about the schedules, QOL, and future of the airline. I'm a new regional captain and although I'm really looking forward to the move there are a few Big things that are screwing with me. The First year pay again will be my 3rd major pay cut since starting with the airlines. Reading on here it seems that a lot of Frontier guys think contract negotiations will drag on for a very long time. Is that something that most people feel at the airline? I actually live in Chicago but I'm from Denver so the basing works out perfectly. What kind of overnights or trips can I expect if I were to be based in Chicago?
Frontier is an airline that I have always wanted to work for and I've kept up with them through a lot of the ups and downs. But to be honest I was pretty surprised at the disparity in pay scales compared to all other airbus operators. I'm hoping that I'm getting in at a great time and that we will see some gains.
The Chicago schedules are better than the Denver schedules, and it's more junior, so your quality of life would probably get better faster in Chicago...probably.
Denver is a much larger domicile, about 275 crews to 100. In Chicago for December, the average line is 16.3 days off and 80 hours of pay. Denver for December is 15.5 and 79 pay.
Chicago is 32% day turns, 4% 2 days, 8% 3 days, 31% 4 days and 25% 5 day trips.
First year pay does suck and is well below average. Our current contract is from the bankruptcy days. I'm looking long term, and I believe frontier will offer a good career. The airline is very profitable and growing fast. Once we get a new contract, it should be a good place to be. I'm not retiring for more than 30 years, so I'm not too caught up in the current contract. It will only be a short portion of my career