Originally Posted by
LucasM
yes you can go straight to a major. no you don't have to go to a regional
Hold on...
Theoretically, yes. But in practice you will probably have to know someone who is very, very well connected.
If you just apply off the street there are thousands of regional captains and furloughed mainline pilots with extensive 121, glass, turbojet experience. Those folks will be viewed as lower training risks and known quantities in a 121 environment.
Amflight is most likely a good path to a non-bottom-feeder regional or maybe corporate flying.
If it was a reliable path to good major jobs (I'm not talking about the skybus league) a whole bunch of us would be over there for the fast upgrade instead of doing years at regionals.
I have a friend who went there 8 years ago so he could straight to UPS...but guess what, UPS requires heavy, long-range, international experience. You get one guess where my buddy (still) is today...
You MIGHT be able to get hired at SWA, they seem to be more open to turboprop-only pilots but they interview 20 and hire 2-3 so that's not a reliable bet unless you happen to be EXACTLY what SWA is looking for (nobody really knows exactly what SWA is looking for, their interview staff is all HR, no pilots or simulators involved).