Originally Posted by
Excargodog
Au contraire. It’s why I, like many others, am not even APPLYING for the job. I’m glad you found it an “OK place to make a living with an OK quality of life,” but the marketplace has changed. A guy with 1500 hrs TT can make $50 an hour as a newbie at regionals today, with a signing bonus, and yes, have housing during training and then have better working rules afterwards. That’s TODAYS reality. And Sunny either needs to adjust to it, or you are going to wind up with right seats populated by guys/gals with a grand total of 1500 hrs, mostly CFI time in Cessna 152s with 25 hours in light twins. Good luck with that.
Because SY has only had MSP for a domicile since the beginning, paying for hotels during training just wasn’t going to be a priority IMO. Most people that go there wouldn’t go there for the money, they’d go for the MSP domicile and the ok long term pay.
I’m not sure what all of the frustration is about. If there are better offers, go take them. Regionals are paying hiring bonuses but after the first year it sucks. At SY, the first year pay blows but after that it’s ok. Sure it’s way below industry standard for a 737 operator but if you really want to fly the kind of trips they fly and have MSP for a domicile then maybe it could work for you. Otherwise go somewhere else! The market is still hot.
For the vast majority of pilots SY is a no go. Perhaps their management will have a crisis trying to recruit and they’ll eventually have to raise the bar. Until then I wouldn’t expect existing SY pilots to make first year pay a priority because attracting applicants only makes it harder for them to justify better work rules and compensation during contract negotiations.
My guess is that if things continue as is, SY will have flocks of FO’s with relatively fresh 737 type ratings leaving for more stable, higher paying airlines. Attrition has slowed temporarily there but IMO unless something changes for the better in a significant way, attrition will go right back up.