Originally Posted by
jacburn
A couple of facts that you might want to reconsider. EWR has been a base for XJT for a very long time. However, United has a tendency to move all the regionals around. I would be very cautious at this point about EWR staying a XJT base.
Anything can happen. But If anything, out of the big three, United seems to be the less likely to destroy a base with so much history as XJTs EWR base out of the blue.
Originally Posted by
jacburn
Commutair is getting at least 40 planes from XJT and they have been told they will be getting more of them to be announced in the very near future. XJT still has over 40 planes on property right now that are not covered under any new CPA that has been announced. Commutair has announced they will be opening a EWR base for the 145's the first part of 2017 (only a few months from now).
...
To the OP, you might want to look at CommutAir. They have a nice bonus (not as much as some of the others), they are upgrading as soon as you have the hours, they are expanding, their contract is almost as good as XJT and it is better in some areas. They really do have a "higher pay" than XJT due to upgrades making $64 an hour in one year instead of my $44 an hour at year 9. They have the same CPP that XJT has with United. They are located in EWR and the jets will be there in a couple of months.
I don't follow CommutAir happenings very closely, but if I remember correctly, they will be retiring a significant number of Dash-8s in the near future. So there is not much of a long term expansion going on, but rather a fleet replacement that will cause a temporal expansion. Sure, some previews 121 guys will be able to jump the list and upgrade out of training, but the ones that miscalculate the timing could be in for a very bitter ride.
CommutAir's EWR base also has a lot of legacy behind it, I will give you that. But I don't know what to say regarding making that move. That will have to be a purely personal choice up to the OP. I
personally see ExpressJet surviving longer than CommutAir.
FWIW, I do believe that seemingly unreasonable lateral moves
could give you something else to explain during an interview with a major or LCC.