Thread: Skywest v2.0
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Old 08-31-2016, 02:55 AM
  #2905  
RemoveB4Flight
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Originally Posted by Turbosina View Post
This goes against my own best interests, but I'm gonna say it anyways. If I were looking to get into the 121 game right now, I'm not sure SKW would be my first choice. Simply for the reason that we've hired a TON of guys starting in December 2013. The hiring floodgates opened then and have not stopped. Just as an illustration, if you were hired in Dec. 2013 you would now be in the top 15-20% of FOs in certain West Coast CRJ bases. And you would have been able to upgrade 3 months ago. Which is incredible, if you think about it.

This has been great for guys who got hired between, say, Dec. 2013 and late 2014 (I'm in that group). But for guys getting hired now...you are gonna be at the bottom of a 4,000+ pilot group, a huge number of which were hired in the last year or two. When I signed on, we had 3,200 pilots and I've gone up more than 700 spots. So in the last 2.5 years or so, we've added 800 pilots. Many of these guys are not going to leave for the LCCs or majors anytime soon, because so many of them were hired right at 1,500 hours.

At the same time, I don't see us securing huge amounts of new flying.

My point is, I do wonder what sort of seniority movement you'll see if you're just starting out at SKW. It certainly won't be anything like what my classmates have seen. Nearly all of us are now able to upgrade, but we were lucky enough to get hired when we did.

Then again, what I said above may well apply to every other regional out there, given the current hiring craze. And if you live in a SKW base, you'd be crazy not to at least consider coming here. But still, just food for thought...
This is trying to gaze too deep into the crystal ball. There are too many other factors that come into play.
As you've mentioned, I think this mass increase of new hiring is the case with most of the regionals. Also with the current movement at the majors I wouldn't worry about this as a new hire.
Most importantly, don't you think we have it pretty good at Skywest as far as work rules? Yes there are some flaws, there always are. But I'll say this, if the fit hit the shan tomorrow and all hiring quit abruptly everywhere, I feel like I'm stuck in a decent place. I'm not sure pilots of all the other regionals could say the same thing.
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