Originally Posted by
Cldsfr79
This is correct.
Any new hires will have difficulty upgrading EVER. Two reasons:
1: The company has NO plans to grow. In fact they continue to discuss shrinking the fleet. All these shiny new planes are just replacemts (gain one, lose one).
2. And as everyone knows, there is no retirement age in this industry. Sadly, NJ just had a 75 year old guy pass away. There are two pilots who are 79 on the seniority list. The baby boomers only "retire" via loss of medical or death.
Long story short, if you want to work at NJ, do it for better quality of life if you are already a 91/135 pilot and look long and hard at the FO pay, because that's it. Our otherwise the regional to major career path has never looked better. Cheers.
And realize that we are now and will continue to be short on pilots. So your days will be long (12+ hours) and your nights short (10, maybe 11 hours). Every day. Your travel days will include flying 2-3 legs upon your arrival after you airline, sometimes after a 4 hour airline leg....and that just plain sucks. You will probably be denied every request for time off unless it is an family emergency (NJA is very good with this kind of thing). But it better be an emergency. Moving across the country? Denied, we are understaffed. Your problem. Wife having a baby? You will have an airline booked by NJA in minutes. Go figure.
But the pay is pretty god and the health plan is 100% paid by the company....only the $20 deductibles for visits are paid by you, and that's pretty darn good.
So in a nutshell: if you are fine with being a career FO, working long and resting short, and need a good medical plan, give it a try.