Skywest is a solid place and I came very close to coming there myself. Most of the people at the company seem damn happy. I can't in good conscious sit here and say bad things about a company that I don't work at. Especially when my friends there are happy, and they seem to value their employees. Trans States certainly doesn't. All I can do is tell you about Compass and what's happening there and why I think it's a better idea, but it's up to every individual's circumstances. If you live in ORD then of course Skywest is a better option. That said, if you live in SEA or LAX and you choose Skywest I think that's maybe not the best career decision but I don't have a crystal ball. Skywest is the 800 lb gorilla and they will certainly continue to grow and gain flying. And in a few years hopefully it is all rainbows and unicorns for everyone as we get our dream major jobs and are finally paid what we're worth. But.. pragmatically? There are also 3800 pilots according to APC. I would love to see the attrition numbers, but many of the Skywest CA are older and not going anywhere. That slows it down, it has to... maybe it's a small amount of the math, but I don't know. Every time I have a Skywest DH, I see an older CA that doesn't look like he's going anywhere anytime soon. That's out mostly on the west coast though - where are you hiding the 30 year olds doing everything they can applying everywhere to get out as fast as they can? Because that's most compass CA. And that IS a difference, and it does matter. I posted the attrition numbers, you know the size of our pilot group, you can do the math on your own to try and project the upgrade time. And in a year everything could be totally different and hopefully you like where you ended up. But right now that is the way things look.