Originally Posted by Voski

I'm an Army pilot that will be leaving active service in a little more than a year for the airlines. Case-in-point, I was and still am attracted to SkyWest because of their reputation and the fact that they seem like they're one of the few regionals that have a future in the industry.

However, reputation, base options, and owning your own airplanes can only get you so far in this hiring environment when you've got companies like Endeavor, Envoy, PSA, and Piedmont all making compelling options. I can make roughly twice as much income my first two years at one of the wholly-owned carriers to ease the pay cut of leaving the military and ease the burden of first officer pay scales. Plus, a company like PSA has SAP as a line holder meaning preferential scheduling; my friends at SkyWest keep telling me how they're maxed out. Even though the airlines with flow-through agreements are more or less a gimmick in my book, it's still an insurance policy that tips the already unbalanced scales even further away from SkyWest. Right now, it's a no-brainer move for my family.

I'm hoping SkyWest can offer more incentives to attract more pilots, but a differential pay of ~$40,000+ over two years by going elsewhere is a deal breaker.