Originally Posted by
rickair7777
Historical fact... AA had flow in the past and it went away real fast at one point.
Also WO's serve as capacity accumulators because the parent can downsize flying as needed. To do that at an independent regional they need to pay huge penalties to get out of contracts early, or find an excuse to fire them (the later has happened a few times).
WO's have also been shut down and liquidated for simple convenience (not AA). When you say "American Eagle" that has quite a different meaning today than when I started in the industry. Today's it's a brand. Back then it was an airline with a near-monopoly on AA feed, which could have been sold off at one point. Envoy is lucky to still be WO.
Something to consider in your decision making.
It only went away because the mainline was not hiring. During those years, there was no real movement from any other regionals either, so AA WO's were not singled out in this.
I'd say the AA WO's did pretty well during those years. Yes, they downsized, but looking at the turmoil rest of the regional industry went through, AA WO wasn't a bad place to be.
Currently, there are no 10 year CA's at any WO's who are there because they can't move on. There are plenty of them at other regionals. So yes, the flow works, even though there was a 7-8 year gap because of the lost decade.
So based on the history lessons, I would say AA WOs are definitely some of the more stable regionals to be in. And currently they have other added benefits too - fast upgrades, no training delays and so on.