Originally Posted by
05Duramax
I posted this as a reply to a post in the Republic forum but it applies to this and being that I have lived through it I can offer my experience.
I quit flying during the lost decade and came back a couple of years ago because I realized I would forever regret not following through on becoming an airline pilot. I also realized it is a really good job, a lot better than the vast majority of jobs. It is soul crushing to have a good paying job in an industry you don’t care about/doesn’t interest you, believe me.
You’ll have to do some soul searching to answer your question but I will tell you for me a day doesn’t go by that I don’t regret quitting on flying. My buddies that saw it through the hard times are making 150k to 250k a year gaining seniority at majors while I make 50k a year as an FO at Republic.
Its a rough business although it was getting unbelievably good lately and even dare I say stable. But again, supporting the theory that it’s a rough business all it took was a random virus to bring it all down in a matter of days. It’s an incredibly frustrating game.
I guarantee even your buddies that are making 200k right now had to go through a lot of misery for years during the hard times working min credit 2 days off on reserve, basically no life. And now those guys will probably downgrade or even get furloughed depending on how this goes. It’s a definitely an unstable business. I believe the last downturn lasted 3 years.