Longhornmaniac8

To all prospective pilots interested in Republic, welcome!

At Republic, you'll find a great group of fun, professional pilots, a good contract with many industry-leading (in the regionals) items, and a terrific opportunity to learn the ropes in the 121 world. I picked Republic over a handful of other good options, and I'm still really glad I did.

I'm hoping by posting this and possibly getting it stickied, it will give prospective new hires an easy place to obtain oft-requested information. I, along with others, are happy to help answer more specific questions.

All information is accurate as of late October 2019. As with everything else in this industry, things change rapidly. I'll do my best to keep it updated.

When should I apply?

Conditional job offers are good for 6 months, so conventional wisdom says wait until then.

How long does it take to get a class date?

Currently, our wait times are minimal. We did not have any new hire classes in September because we were prioritizing upgrades and check airmen qualifications.

I heard Republic's training footprint is taking 6 months or more due to training delays. Is that true?

It was, but not anymore. Due to some seriously aggressive hiring that took place in 2018, our Enhanced Flat Panel Trainers (EFPT) and sims were the choke points, and ultimately the training department decided to do basic onboarding and then send new hire classes home so that training could be completed as continuously as possible rather than providing multiple breaks in between each module.

Currently, the choke point is line check airmen (LCA) availability, something the company is working to address (see above). The current wait between your line-oriented evaluation (LOE/checkride) and the beginning of operating experience (OE/IOE) is approximately 3 weeks. We're hoping to get that reduced substantially.

As it stands, the total training footprint is roughly 3 months excluding OE, which brings it up to close to 4.

What are the new hire bases?

It depends on each class, but it's very likely the bulk of our new hire classes will be offered some combination of EWR, LGA, and PIT in varying proportions, with CMH and IND scattered in to a lesser extent.

How long will it take to hold X base?

The current junior bidder in MIA is a September 2018 hire, and the current junior award in MIA for February 2020 (see explanation below) is an April 2019 hire. The current junior bidder in IAH is a November 2018 hire, as is the current junior award for February.

This means that the most senior FO base at the moment based on junior bidders is Miami, but by February, it will be Houston. These two go back and forth, but you can count on them remaining senior.

All other bases should be fairly easily obtainable near the time you finish training. Exactly how long will fluctuate, but 1-4 months from date of hire to award for every base except IAH and MIA has been the norm for quite a while now.

How frequently do you bid?

Our base bidding is done every month, effective 4 months later. So our current October bid is effective February 1st.

Occasionally you might be asked to move early, and the union does process base swaps on an automated basis to try to get you into your desired base sooner. In general, this works better if you're trying to bid into the more junior bases.

How many days off will I get per month?

It depends on how you bid. If you are on reserve, you get 12 hard days a month off. So in a 30 day month, you're working 18, in a 31 day month, 19.

Junior lineholders will average 14-16 days off per month, but if you're bidding for higher credit, it will obviously be less. The truth is, once you're a lineholder, you can generally obtain what it is you're looking for. Some want more days off, and 17-18 isn't rare, while some want more credit, and being able to get 95-105 hours credit per month is also not rare.

We do have two rounds of Schedule Adjustment Period (SAP) where individuals awarded an initial line can try to drop and add trips to build a more ideal line, but if you ask most pilots here they'll tell you it's of limited effectiveness because it still depends on projected reserve availability that day. It's basically a meme among our pilot group that every request submitted gets denied.

How long will I be on reserve at X base?

Generally speaking, a new hire today will likely be on reserve for 6-9 months from the time they hit the line, just depending on the base. There were people in my class who held a line as soon as they finished training (with the aforementioned training delays), and others who are still on reserve.

If your goal is minimizing time spent on reserve, they pretty much move in parallel to the bases' relative seniority. Larger, junior bases like EWR, LGA, and PIT will have more movement in and out, meaning quicker opportunity to move up the list as those in front of you are able to bid into their desired base.

How much will I fly on reserve?

As you've probably picked up by now, it really depends a lot. I don't think I'd be leading anyone astray to say 30-40 hours a month block is probably close to average. Some months it will be more than that and you might break guarantee, while others you'll hardly fly at all. I had a 5 week stretch in June-July where I had one 4-day trip and that's it.

What are the current upgrade times?

Our current junior upgrade award went to an August 2018 hire, which means it's 14 months to award, and 18 months until they'll hit the line. Looking at this individual's times this year, it does not appear they came in with any prior 121 time, and have been flying their butt off.

Note: It's extremely important to not base where you're looking on current upgrade times. It's arguably the most volatile aspect of everything discussed here, and a perfect example of the "past performance doesn't equal future results" mantra. As a case-in-point, if you'd ventured over to the ExpressJet board in January, upgrade times were 5-6 years. They're now down to less than 3, in just 10 months.

I'm interested in your new BOS/SDF bases which open in December. Will these be junior or senior?

Conventional wisdom around Republic is that SDF will go quite senior on the CA side because we have lots of SDF-residing IND CA since it was the closest base when SDF closed the last time.

Beyond that, it appears BOS and SDF should go quite junior, and could plausibly be offered to new hires on the FO side.

We've been told BOS will be predominately day trips, while SDF will be mostly a mix of day trips and 2 days.

What are the junior CA bases? How long will it take me to hold X base as a CA?

Mirroring the FO side, the junior captain bases tend to be EWR and LGA, but unlike the FO side, there's a lot more month to month variation because larger chunks of people have moved on. In general, if one were to take the first available upgrade, you would likely be able to move on to your desired base within the first 6 months of hitting the line as a CA.

The single constant is that ORD is absurdly senior, and no one should ever count on holding it as a CA. The current junior bidder (meaning at the bottom of the reserve list) is a February 2008 hire, meaning 11.5 years on property. ORD CA vacancies are Republic's version of a unicorn.

I will be a commuter. Is Republic a good place for me?

It really depends. The commuter aspects of our contract is probably the weak point, and appears to be something our union is planning to emphasize in the next round of contract negotiations which start soon.

Our commuter policy allows for 4 instances in a rolling 12 month period, provided you've listed for two flights that would get you to base on time.

Beyond that, the structure of our route and base network is not particularly commuter friendly. Because many of our largest bases are outstations for the respective airlines, most trips at those bases start early and end late, meaning you'll fly out on the first flight of the day to a hub, and then return on the last day on the last flight of the night. This makes commuting on days off a near certain reality. Some trips will allow either front end or back end commuting, but trips that are commutable both ends are exceedingly rare at outstation bases. Depending on where you live, IND has a large domestic FedEx operation and it could plausibly connect to your home airport in the early hours of the morning.

Life for commuters is better at the hub bases, which contrary to popular opinion represent a majority of our total bases (IAH, ORD, MIA, DCA, EWR, LGA, PHL, and BOS vs. IND, CMH, PIT, and SDF). There are more trips that have later starts and earlier finishes, allowing for same day commuting.

As always, life is better when you can drive to work, and that is the one thing that will improve your QOL over everything else at all levels of aviation, but especially the regionals.

Is it true Republic has a lot of "lifers" because the major airlines don't like to hire from Republic?

Ask 10 different people this question and you'll get 10 different answers.

Every regional that has something unique to offer will naturally have its fair share of lifers. In the case of Republic, it's able to offer those living in the larger Midwestern cities a terrific quality of life in locations with comparatively low costs of living. The "lost generation" of pilots hired on either side of 9/11 would now have to give up a lot, both in pay and especially in QOL, to move on, and with families and a comfortable life, it's justifiably tough to rationalize. Most other regionals have something comparable, whether it's Endeavor and their super senior MSP base, ExpressJet and their TYS base, etc.

Although I don't expect many people initially start their career planning to stay at regionals, a 20-year CKA could approach $140-150K, the ability to pick their days off, never work on a holiday, etc. It'd take them 2-4 years to make that much again at any other airline, and they'd likely never be able to replicate that QOL in the rest of their career.

With respect to hiring, I haven't seen any real evidence to support the idea that Republic is avoided by the legacies. There's not any reason why they would be. My own opinion is that much of our pilot group sees airlines like JetBlue or Spirit as good opportunities for a pay raise while mirroring our pilot bases and those airlines are the ones that are more likely to call first.

As retirements accelerate at the majors, I think getting to any specific airline will get easier. Exactly how that manifests at Republic I think will mirror most other regionals that fly for multiple partners.

Does Republic have a flow agreement or guaranteed interview anywhere?

No. If you're a civilian dead set on AA, the AAG wholly-owned regionals are the best, and most secure way to get there. Republic, based on its current ownership structure, likely won't have any sort of preferential programs. Allegedly we have an application review with Delta, but that program is somewhat of a mystery which I take to mean as not having much value vis-a-vis an off-the-street hire.

Outside of AA, I think a Republic pilot's odds of getting hired at any one specific carrier are as good as just about anywhere else. And it's my own opinion that I think the odds of getting hired as a civilian off-the-street at AA will have to go up out of necessity.

How much can I expect to earn as a first-year Republic FO?

This is obviously going to depend a lot on your specific situation, but as a part of the group that didn't hit the line until after 6 months (meaning I was making training pay for the first 30 days [$60/day stipend] and then minimum monthly guarantee [MMG] for the next 5 months), combined with being on reserve for the rest of my first 12 months (I chose to go to one of those very senior bases as soon as I could), I still grossed roughly $55K including the $2500 bonus for 1 year of employment and other parts of the bonus paid during the year.

That is essentially a worst case scenario because I had such a long period during training where I was making only minimum guarantee and no per diem, combined with large chunks of reserve where I wasn't working, not breaking guarantee, and not getting per diem.

Put another way, I only broke MMG in 4 of the 12 months of my first year. In the months I did break it, I averaged about 20-30% more over MMG.

I don't think it'd be unreasonable to expect the average first year Republic FO to earn at least an extra 10-20% over what I did.

How do the flight benefits work?

To me, this is the best part of working for Republic. Because we fly for American, United, and Delta, we get flight benefits on all three, regardless of whether your base flies for all three or not. Essentially, we're at the lowest priority, above only buddy passes but behind all active employees, retirees, and parents of active employees at those companies (and their wholly-owned subsidiaries). While it's not great being near the bottom of every standby list, I've never had a problem getting on, and if you're strategic about it, getting business class on long-haul flights is more than doable. What we lose in lower priority we make up for in flexibility. If weather hits an AA hub, the ripples will be felt far outside that base in the AA network, making standby travel very difficult. We have the freedom/flexibility to walk over to the United or Delta gates and get on one of their unaffected flights.

How about other benefits? How much do they cost?

Depending on which plan you select, medical plans will range from a HDHP that costs $110-$320 per month for yourself or a family to a PPO/HMO that runs $220-$550 per month.

Basic Dental is free for the associate, and ranges from $26-43/month for a family depending on which level is selected.

That's just a brief overview. Everything is pretty industry-standard as far as benefits go. 100% match up to 3% on your 401(k) for the first 5 years, then 5%. Vested immediately.

I hope this helps some people with questions they have and may make the Republic forum a little more user friendly for prospective pilots.