How is it overall
 

Hi guys,

I'm considering some regionals and I would love some feedback from anyone who's been at Air Wisconsin for more than one year. Can you give me some specific feedback as to how this airline is different from others.

Not trying to be rude in any way, but I notice this is your first post. I would recommend taking some time and scroll through all the other threads within each airline you are pursuing. Doing so will give you all the information you seek. You'll be able to find out what airlines fly what airframes, their crew bases, seniority, time to upgrade, and so on. Best of luck!

I’d recommend reading the threads

Hard to say since many of us have only flown for one regional. I would say now is a great time to be at most of the higher profile regionals since the pay is good and there is movement. Having an easy commute/living in base can be a big deal if you have a family or don't want to move, especially when you are junior. Reserve is going to stink at most regionals and Air Wisconsin works theirs pretty hard. But, you get hours and get paid so it has some benefit I guess. We get 12 days off minimum, (when staffing is okay). The big one you will hear is our health insurance. Affordable and one of the best in the industry, majors included. If you are young and bullet-proof it's not that big a deal, but if you need it, you are glad you have it. Also, another plus for AWA is a smaller pilot group. If movement continues, it's a shorter path to the left seat with 600 pilots than with 1600. Good luck with your decision.

I've worked for a very large regional and now AW where we now have 550 pilots. There is a definite feeling of being a part of a team here that I think you won't find most places. The attitude here is just different and it makes me look forward to coming to work on most days even when operational issues are a challenge. It's also very easy to become a big fish in a small pond here so if you have some ambition this is the place to go. They just promoted an FO to Assistant Chief Pilot in MKE who had been here for less than a year. There are huge opportunities here for those who want them.

AW training is tough. That's no secret. But it's a small industry and the majors/LCC's know a good training program from an average one. Southwest hires a huge number of our pilots because they know our pilots will breeze through their program. All regionals are not created equal and you want a good one on your resume if you can get it. It does make a difference.

After having been here for 8 months I'm around 410/550 in the company. That's 25% of the way up the list in less than a year. That's some serious movement and the CPP hasn't even started. Even if the CPP accounts for 5 pilots a month that's still an additional 10% of the current group per year on top of the movement that is already happening.

The other major differentiator that I think people don't completely appreciate are the trip and duty rigs. You'll routinely see a pairing with 15 hours of flying and 21 hours of credit. This is huge and it makes it very hard to compare our pay rates to other companies.

I'm not saying everything is perfect here, but when comparing regionals I think AW is one of the few smart choices.

I agree with this except for the whole rig thing...ive flown one trip that paid a rig in 7 years here.

I’ve had both trip and duty rig come into play a bunch, and I haven’t been here very long.

As someone from the outside, working for an airline without rigs, have you ever considered that your pairings are constructed more efficient because of the rigs? Company is incentivized to avoid 3 1/2 hour sits, long overnights, etc. believe me, they don’t like paying for work that isn’t performed. Rigs are a great thing, especially with an airline that flies 50 seaters on some very very short flights.

It’s definitely an incentive to build trips that aren’t a waste of time. While it’s true that the company tends to build trips that aren’t “rigged” during the initial build, they definitely come into play during irregular ops when trips are cobbled together from open time. If you are aggressive about trading you can get paid quite well for sitting in a hotel watching Netflix.

I’ve always been a bit confused on what “rigs” actually mean and how they come into play. I was always told to look for it, but I don’t know how to break it down and how it affects pilots.