Originally Posted by
ncsean
5 years thanks to guys like AMCwhatever. Guys who haven't left Utah enough to know the state of the industry let alone the state of their own airline. Guys that are completely oblivious to the QOL issues and various ways the company nickels and dimes our pilots. I can't recommend coming here unless you happen to live in a base that only SKW has a base. And even then you have to know that if it is west of Mississippi you don't have much chance of being based there as a Captain.
Yeah, the 5 year contract was basically carried by two segments of the pilot population:
(1) Lifers with less than 15 years left. The biggest risk for them is any hiccup in the SKYW trajectory. They are living the - relatively - good life and are praying that SKYW will stay around until they retire. The biggest nightmare for them would be to have to start over anywhere else. They would have voted in a concessionary contract if it gave them any guarantees of staying around. They got an improved 401(k) as a goodie to go along....
(2) Relatively new guys who didn't really know what is going on mis-lead by the growth prospects and fast upgrades. Upgrades are rock bottom as they are. No additional growth required. Plus, that deal was likely inked long before that vote anyway.
This leads to what does this mean for new hires.
Classes are full for now. There is no sign of re-negotiation at this point. SKYW apparently still works for many people. Everyone's situation is different. And it is a good company despite some of this negativity on here.
But keep in mind, while you can get west coast bases as an FO relatively quickly, do not expect to see the left coast as a CA in less than 5-7 years (depending on which) - and then sit reserve for another 1-2 years. A lot of people have opted for the early / fast upgrade hoping to go back to the west coast. I am sure many of them are also banking on moving on quickly but they may end up commuting to ORD, DTW and ATL for many years.