There doesn't have to be growth to be a future at AWAC. However, if someone being hired today goes to an airline that's expanding versus one that is stagnant, their career progression is obviously going to be much faster at the growing airline.

I didn't realize that there was such a hot demand for the 50 seat market these days. All I see is a growing number of 50 seat airplanes being parked in various desert locations.

 

I think that would be correct. And it was very short lived unfortunately.

 

There doesn't need to be a hot demand for 50 seaters...just don't be the ones parking them, and AWAC is smart enough not to be one of those.

It is not a bad move to go to an airline that has growth...its a good move. But, turbojet time is just that...its the same no matter which operator you are flying for.

Mainline has mostly fished out all the regional LCAs, instructors, etc and is now going after FOs which strongly suggest that chasing rapid upgrades is not all that essential for upward mobility.

Either way they are going to look for candidates that have considerable turbojet experience. The lack of a rapid upgrade at AWAC is almost moot as I estimate upgrade times in the past two years have dropped from over six to 3.5 in just the last two years...and that is without the expected mainline hiring ramp-up in the fall.

You won't lose that much advantage if you don't get that captain upgrade before you move on...you will still need to put in the time flying the airplane and getting experience...you can't fake that.

After flying for as long as I have, a lot for corporate concerns with varying work conditions...AWAC is a nice place to spend your time in the regionals before you move on...

 

It absolutely is. In fact, I mostly agree with everything you said. The only thing that I think might be a bit misleading is implying that you are just as likely to be selected at a major as a regional FO. Is it possible? Sure...but you'd better have some pretty good connections to make that happen. There are of course exceptions for everything.

 

AWAC is a great place. I didn't come here for a quick upgrade. I came here because it seemed like a great pilot group, which it is, and the contract is very solid compared to other regionals.

 

Well at least they posted a vacancy for 10 additional captains today...hopefully that trend continues throughout the year.

 

That's good to see. This is the first month in a while where there's been more CA resignations than FO's.

 

This might be the one exception in our history, but this occurred a: while were still flying for UAL and thought we had an 'affirmed' contract and b: was explained by management as an 'experiment' that was supposed to last 3+ years, but was ended at only a year and a half. Supposedly AirTran wanted us to continue but wanted to replace the 50 seaters with 70's (10-15 airframes). AWAC management indicated that wasn't enough aircraft to be worthwhile (they wanted 30 minimum).

ID

 

when does the contract end, is United taking it back? One can only hope. They need to take back DEN as well, both are horrendous

 

Nope. Swissport got 12 of the 18 stations out for bid. No word on the last 6.

ID