[QUOTE=Squeakygreaser;2378008]I have something to say about this, I got furloughed from Horizon 8 years ago and I'm going back. I'm not even wanting to be seattle based and I'm going just hoping they eventually open a PDX jet base. I think this is a no brainer Horizon is looking to add between 18 and 60 airframes over the next 6 years and Compass just lost 7. I believe to Skywest. Growth is everything to a pilot because your ability to get weekends off summer and holiday vacations all boils down to getting people behind you on the seniority list. Compass may have a two year upgrade now, but Horizon will probably drop from a 2.5 year upgrade to a 2 year upgrade on the prop and the jet upgrade will probably end up around 5 years. I can't see Compass upgrades going anywhere but up with the airframes they have lost. You hear a lot on these forums about how you'll never upgrade in the jet at Horizon. That will not be the case if they add 60 jets. I think people aren't really taking into account how much growth that is and what that growth will do to upgrade times. Also, a lot of those super senior Horizon pilots, they don't want to go fly the jet. They are old dogs, they don't want to learn new tricks, if they have to commute to fly the jet they won't do it. As an indicator, they are already offering jet upgrades to people at 4 years. And that's with 8 jets on the property.

Also because Compass is not growing they don't need pilots that bad so they aren't offering any bonuses to my knowledge. So the difference in pay in your first two years favors Horizon by about 25k.

The real question for me and I don't know why you haven't considered this: is what is going to happen with Alaska and Skywest, the guy at the interview said they intend to expand their agreement with Skywest, and this is at a Horizon interview. So it really remains to be seen where the smarter money is if you want to be 175 based in the Northwest. I can't get any feel for which way Alaska is going to go with that. Right now, it seems like the biggest obstacle facing Horizon is Pilot staffing. They are probably pretty close to tapped out on how much money they are going to offer to bring on First Officers. If they can't get pilots at this pay rate (40+10) they may turn the flying over to Skywest in the hopes that Skywest can get the airframes staffed.[/QUOTE


Signed,
Forrest Gump