Originally Posted by
R0GER BALL
Well. In today’s market you should NEVER end up as a regional CA. Fly 6mo and leave for an LCC or ULCC- which ever one means you drive to work.
Year 2 FO at every single LCC/ULCC makes more then the most senior SkyWest FO.
An upgrade at every single LCC/ULCC makes more than the most senior SkyWest CA.
And 15% direct contribution retirement.
Plus all the other soft pay benefits.
Oh. And the flying. Your actual job… 738/321 far greater then CRJ.
3-6 months at SkyWest and jump. At ANY age and seniority level. It’s a special time.
This exactly! The regional captain model is failing and they thought a cheap buyout would fix it or recession with a pause in hiring into the majors would bail them out. They gambled wrong. They could buy themselves out of it, but at the end of the day the management wants the money for themselves and the stockholders.
Every FO looking to upgrade sees it pretty simple. Do I upgrade and make roughly 150k per year with a horrible schedule, no QOL, and a pitiful 401k match
Do I leave for a ULCC make the same as I am making now for a year, fly a bigger plane, get a better schedule just by nature of the flying and a 15% DC and then make 150k next year?
This is an easy decision.
The regionals have money in the bank (or money backed by the majors) and renegotiated their contracts to account for pilot wages. They could make the job of regional captain pay enough to offset the negatives and get people to stay. They are slow to do this or just will not.
The result is that almost every FO with time will leave and the company will downsize and the captains that are at the regional for life will keep the ship afloat while the quality of flying and schedules continues to decrease.
Without FOs upgrading to captains to keep the flying going there is no capacity to keep hiring all the CFIs as they have previously been able to do