Every regional airline has issues. There is not one single one that doesn't have a few pilots upset over something who'll come online and bash their employer thinking the grass is greener at that other regional across the street.
If you're looking at a regional airline position; Via is better in may ways than most of the competition; and in other ways it's worse. None of the regionals is perfect. They all have their faults. My advice would be to research them all and then choose the one with the faults that will least effect you.
Here are the good points:
- No Airport Standby or Ready Reserve
-Reserve - All short call (if assigned) includes a hotel. All long call is from home.
- No commuting. All pilots are home based, and are given positive space tickets to/from work. Pilots keep the air miles and frequent flyer program awards.
- RON's and most overnights the company has monthly rental cars waiting at the hotels so the crew can go out if needed. If you are someplace other than a normal RON and they get you a rental, you keep those award points too.
- Company ipads issued while in training.
- Pilots are salary, so those mechanical cancellations, weather cancellations never effect your pay. A dead day in a hotel pays as much as a full day of flying.
- Duty days over 12 hours the company provides crew meals. Yes, they actually buy a decent meal of your own choice.
- Free single occupancy hotel in training with crew cars provided to get around.
New pay rates take effect in May. Street CA's to start at $78k. CA's top out at around $105k after 5 years. FO's start at $50k and go up like $5k each year up to $65k. There is a 401k but no 401k matching. There is no sick bank or vacation bank. you just tell them what time you need off, and as long as you're not abusing it, they build the schedules around it.
Like every regional, there's always stuff pilots will find to complain about. It really isn't that bad. The paycheck comes on the due dates. Like I said; research the ones you're interested in, and choose the one with the problem areas that will effect you the least. They've all got issues.