Originally Posted by
Cfii123
Hey guys, any input is greatly appreciated. I’m Florida based so Frontier and Spirit are my top choices. Tampa would be great cause of family but I don't mind Orlando either. Everywhere I look, Spirit pilots just love their lives which is why I am here. The schedule flexibility is huge for me and so is turns/being home most nights.
1. How has your QOL been at spirit, do you enjoy working there?
2. Do you have any insight on the pros/cons of working for spirit over frontier?
3. How do you believe the merger will impact you?
4. If given the option now which ULCC would you choose?
5. Is Spirit a place you would feel comfortable retiring at or legacy is still the way to go?
6. I’m aiming for MCO, is that something I could get out of training?
7. Starting at a regional here soon. How many hours is competitive these days for spirit? I did the traditional 1500 CFI gig so have 0 turbine time atm. I plan on attending as many MTC events as possible after my checkride.
8. And what’s the % of day trips atm? That’s big for me as far as QOL goes.
9. Is frontier better for day trips out of TPA or spirit out of MCO?
I get your questions, but a comparison between Spirit and Frontier is almost moot at this point. After the merger we will be JetBlue and they will have a lot of decisions to make about the type and destination of flying out of our large Florida bases.
MCO and FLL are both large Spirit bases, with MCO being slightly more senior. But again, none of that matters until we know how large each base will be post merger. Both bases are very senior at JetBlue.
Prior to all this merger stuff, Spirit or Frontier were both no-brainers for someone looking for a long term Florida base. But in your case, let’s say best case scenario you start a regional in the next couple months, finish training, and get a few months/couple hundred hours and get lucky with a MTC for an interview. We are talking mid next year earliest, then a couple months for a class date. So maybe July-August start date. Is it possible you will get MCO out of training? Sure. But that’s most likely a year from merger and at that point both pilot groups will get shuffled together and every pilot senior to you (roughly 8000) will get a crack at pushing you out of MCO.
There’s really no telling how many pilots or how senior Orlando or Lauderdale will be for a future new hire to use basing as a career decision maker.
On the other hand the merger could fall through and you are back to which ULCC to work for. Ain’t this career grand?