Originally Posted by aerospacepilot

A few seniority numbers at a regional is worthless if you can't go on to a major. Let me say that again. A few seniority numbers at a regional is worthless if you can't go on to a major.

If you do not finish your four year college degree, you WILL NOT be hired by a major airline. So why are you in such a rush to get to a regional??

The famous line "seniority is everything" gets thrown around a lot because people want to get to a regional, upgrade as soon as possible, to start building turbine PIC time so they can get hired at a major airline. Without a four year college degree, you WILL NOT be hired by a major airline. So what's the rush to upgrade? What's the rush to get turbine PIC? Why are you in such a rush if you are going to be stuck at a regional airline for the rest of your life.


If I were you, I would finish my four year college degree. After that I would flight instruct until I felt comfortable to go to a quality regional like Skywest, Republic, Expressjet, or someone similar. Hiring will not stop. The regionals in general are still short on pilots. If anything, this slight slowdown is because 50 seaters are no longer economical, and that means a shift of flying from regionals to mainline. THIS IS GOOD FOR AVIATION!!! United, Delta, Continental, Northwest, and US Air, along with most the other majors are still hiring hundreds and hundreds of people each.

Think about it. Lets say you jump ship to a bad regional like Mesa. Then lets pretend that hiring does stop (It will not happen, but we will use it as an example because that is what you are afraid of). Then guess what, you are stuck flying for Mesa. You would be better off as a flight instructor. Again, what good is that TPIC if you CAN NOT do anything with it (you can't go to a major without a 4 year college degree). So all you are doing is acrewing seniority at a crappy regional, and that is worthless.

As one famous jedi once said, "Fear leads to the dark side." You are afraid of something that will not happen, and it is distorting your judgement. Do not worry about regional hiring. They will still be hiring when you are done with college and finished instructing.


Listen, I don't have a dog in this fight. If you abandon college and get on with a crappy regional, it is only good for me. It means there will be less competition for major airline jobs. It means you will be taking a job that I won't do (like work for Mesa), and leave the good regional jobs for me. But I am giving you the best advice I can because I like helping out others. Finish your four year college degree. Instruct for a little while. Then get on with a good regional.
This is the same advice I would give my brother, my best friend, or my son.