Going by the numbers here on APC the ExpressJet F.O. pay scale for the EMB-145 side starts at $37 an hour the first year and you get a minimum of 75 hours a month. From there it goes up to $45 an hour at 8 years.

Mesa on the other hand will start you of at $22 an hour and you get a minimum of 76 hours. The pay scale goes up to $37 an hour at year 8.

So ExpressJet will start paying you your first year roughly what Mesa will pay you at 8 years. Your min guaranteed assuming you donīt fly at all at ExpressJet will be about $33,000 the first year while at Mesa it would be about $20,000.

Iīm not too familiar with the ExpressJet contract, but I believe they have rigs, min day, etc... which increases your overall compensation. At Mesa we donīt have anything like that, except 200% for junior assignments.

Also, ExpressJet medical benefits and retirement plan is superior to Mesaīs, and the quality of the hotels at Mesa will cost you a few stressful nights on the road.

So in reality Mesa does not have much of an incentive to attract new people.

Having said all that, if you live in Houston, cannot move, have another source of income, and donīt want to put up with the commuting non-sense (I still donīt get how so many pilots happily spend so many nights in a crashpad, or show up to work the first day of a trip with an uniform already dirty from the commute) Mesa might actually not be that bad of a choice.

ExpressJet has multiple bases for the 145 and IAH is fairly senior. I know a few junior F.O.s that are worried they are going to get displaced out of Houston once their DFW base closes. Mesaīs only E-175 base is IAH and for now it looks solid. Reserve time is also longer at ExpressJet than at Mesa, and if anything the ERJ-170, ERJ-190 Type is a nice thing to have. The E-175 flying is also better than the flying on the 145.

So, it comes down to how much value you put on being home based at IAH.