Originally Posted by
MaxMar
I have friends at Boutique, I heard it used to be better than it is right now. Explosive growth, good Captain pay, but terrible schedules, frequent MX delays, they're losing some routes to regionals, and their labor - management relationship is pretty poor right now, some say its symptomatic of a company with awful growing pains. I'd say it's a company on the decline, the time to have been flying for them was ~2 years ago.
Never heard anything bad about Surf Air. I know recently their flying was absorbed by Encompass Aviation. They are a startup like BTQ, so their potential for success in the long term is somewhat unknown. You do have to live in California though (don't know what the Texas side of things is like, and Europe is entirely unrelated)
I've heard Tradewind isn't terrible if you're alright with alternating between the Carribean and Northeast. They don't have a training contract, same as Surf Air, which is nice. Pay is decent.
I just interviewed with PS and I'm waiting to hear back. I think I like it most out of the four because they have a large and modern fleet (they're still buying airplanes), they've been around the longest (survived 9/11 and 2008, which is a good sign for the business model), they've got a ton of bases which don't require seniority to bid (so I don't have to live in the Carribean or the Northeast), they include the commute as part of their work cycle, you can get to a jet if you're willing to wait around long enough (many years), and they're expanding their jet program with the PC-24 and adding more pilots to it. I also think their pay is reasonable, although I hope to be seeing some better efforts for CA retention in the next year or so.
I'd say the consensus on most pilot forums is there's no reason to go to any of these companies if you're goal is 121. In today's hiring environment, it's faster to simply instruct at a pilot mill in FL or AZ for a year or so and you're off to a regional class date. I'm interested in 91/91K/135 as a career, so I want to try this on for size.
I would second what you said here. It's why I chose PS over the competitors. Just seemed to fit with what I was looking for. Good people for the most part. Great benefits etc. There is another company close to home called Nicholas Air. Good company but only hiring captains and the starting pay for a pc12 CA is in the 40's. OT rates are 400 a day for captains and 250 or so for F.O.s from what I am told by a friend that works there. Experience plays into your salary tier and what you bring to the table also helps.