Originally Posted by
Thedude86
I never said they were good. They might be good for young and future aviators. They’re also good for management, but they are certainly not good for the pilot group no matter if times are good or times are bad.
I’m guessing you’re relatively new in the 121 world. Your “25 million dollar” contract isn’t at the hands of Swayne Martin. It’s at the hands of how many people are showing up for class. It doesn’t matter if you have Jimmy Hoffa and Al Capone in the flesh negotiating for you. If you are still filling classes... you will get jack squat and like it. Swayne Martin is a major influence on how many people show up for class. A lot of people getting into the regionals don’t know that Envoy has some of lowest pay and worst QOL of the industry right now. Sure maybe things are just like they were 2-3 years ago, but the difference is a new hire will have a much better experience at almost any other airline right now. A lot of new hires don’t realize that. A lot of them only know what they hear from recruiters, see advertised on Envoy’s website, and what they see in Swayne’s videos. And I would guess more people see what they think life is like from Swayne than they do from recruiters. He’s a huge influence.
Yep, never underestimate the ignorance/stupidity of bug-eyed 23-24 year old CFI's looking to go for a regional. They will apply to the first regional they see and accept an offer from the first regional that extends said offer. When you type "regional airline pilot" into the search bar, two of the first five videos are Swayne's videos, and these CFI's will hear the words "Envoy" and then go apply at Envoy and get hired.
You can make all of the reasoned arguments about pay, QOL, long-term prospects, etc. but those arguments do not resonate with the vast majority of 23-24 year olds that are flying 172's for pennies and just want to get out of flight instructing. They will pick a regional that has substandard pay, substandard QOL, and in many cases has bases nowhere near where they live necessitating a two-leg commute just because they saw a video on youtube or one of their flight instructors went there. I know people that live in a place with 9 flights to DFW a day that went to Piedmont and commuted two legs to their crappy outstation base because their old flight instructor went there and kept in touch with them and blew smoke up their ass. It defies all logic.