PIC vs Progression
 

With record numbers of pilots projected to be hired at the legacies in the coming years what is more important.

General Stats:
College degree (business)
No failures
Volunteer, etc.
Late 20s

At a regional who just lost a contract with Delta and am coming up on my 1000 hours. I have flown a lot and it looks like I’ll hit 1000 hours right at 13-14 months on the line. However with the loss of flying the prospects of upgrading and FLYING are slim. As of now it is looking like endless reserve once upgraded. I am holding an offer from an LCC and with the recent new trend of legacies picking up LCC guys without any PIC time I am trying to see what others opinions are on this.

Stay at regional and try to gain PIC time, albeit slowly, then try and move onto a legacy

Go to LCC build more total time, and demonstrate progression with an Airbus type and another passed check ride.

Cheers

This is my take on it, and I apologize if this sounds blunt.

Your options are either go to an LCC, where you’ll make heaps of money and finally work for a company that controls their own destiny, upgrade in a few years, and then go to a major if the opportunity arises (or even earlier), or, worst case scenario, work at a place that is far better than any regional airline.

Or, roll the dice at a regional that may not exist in 5 years, where you’ll make half the money working twice as hard, linger on reserve for who knows how long, all while passing up a real airline that is interested you for one that may never call.

I’d take the sure bet, but the important thing to remember is that I am not you, and there may be some legitimate pros to staying at your current shop due to your circumstances that I wouldn’t be aware of.

What he said ^^^^^. Bottom line is that if you’re not going to upgrade at your regional then you need to move on and an LCC with a fairly fast upgrade (3-5 years) would be a great place to go.

Another thing to consider is that not everyone who applies to a legacy gets hired. So if that unfortunately happens to you where would you want to spend the rest of your aviation life, at your current Regional or the LCC? My guess is that it would be better to spend it at the LCC

The worst day at the worst LCC is still far better than your beat day at ANY regional.

What Darkside said.
I’ll repeat the part about the call that may never come.

The safe bet is to take the LCC job under the circumstances since PIC opportunity is an unknown event horizon at your regional.

The riskier (but still within the bounds of a legit decision IMO) is go to another regional, get fast PIC (maybe DEC?) and hope to move on to the Big Six within 2-4 years, something which retirements should facilitate.

Hybrid move is do the LCC, but remain committed to aggressively keeping your apps out even after you upgrade at the LCC. Don't put on the golden handcuffs when you upgrade.


Considerations:

-LCC Upgrade might slow if the economy slows. Retirements at the big three will not slow (maybe for age 67, but only for two years if it comes to that and only if they're in a world of hurt).

- Can you be based where you want to live with the LCC? That alone may not justify a career at an LCC vs. legacy, but it sure takes some of the sting out of it.

- Legacies do like more type ratings, but all transport jet types seem about equal in their eyes, so a bus (or 73) type won't be valued more than another RJ type apparently.

- I am not aware of a "trend" of legacies hiring low-time/non-PIC guys from LCC's. They are definitely hiring junior FO's (even the odd CA) from LCC's, but many of those have previous TPIC or mil experience. Maybe something is going on that I'm not aware of.

- Legacies hiring civilians without TPIC is a crapshoot... it happens but there's no rhyme or reason in most cases and it's not that common. Some of us actually think they do a little of that at random (grab low-timers from regionals) just to keep hopes and morale up in the coal mines. For planning purposes assume you'll need 2K-5K TPIC to get on with Big Six (that number should come down as retirements ramp up, but that's where it appears to sit right about now).

- LCC looks like a pretty good move from where you sit... but if you get lazy or addicted to the money, ten years from now you might be KICKING yourself when you talk to all of your buddies at the legacies. Don't lose sight of that, this career is a long game, and chess players do better than checker players... especially lucky chess players.

[QUOTE=DiamondDriver;2941561]With record numbers of pilots projected to be hired at the legacies in the coming years what is more important.

General Stats:
College degree (business)
No failures
Volunteer, etc.
Late 20s

I'm in a similar situation to you, 29, b.s in Aerinautics, no failures, 12 months in at a regional. My thought is that the LCC route is a much safer career move as a whole. Next time you fly with a CA that was hired before 2001 or 2008, ask them what they would do in your shoes. Most that I have talked to say run to the LCC as fast as you can. If you do, what the worst case scenario? In a few years, you upgrade, are in your mid 30s making 240ish dollars per hour.... ohhh bother. What's worse case scenario if you stay at the regional? Likely a worse situation.

[QUOTE=WiscoAviator;2942361]While I don’t disagree with your advice in general, the above isn’t even remotely close to the worst case scenario. Try unemployed with no flying jobs available. Just 10 years ago I was choosing between numerous 15,000+ hour pilots for CFI jobs at my flight school because there was nothing else to do if you wanted to fly. Hopefully those days are behind us, but I wouldn’t bet everything on it.

[QUOTE=Duckdude;2943273]Hard to say whether regional, LCC, or legacy would be more subject to furlough in a down market. At least the legacies are probably too big to fail so you'd get recalled eventually.

Last time around the regionals actually did better on average for job security... mainline transferred flying to them. Also non-WO regionals have contracts, which majors cannot just cancel unilaterally so those probably have the best job security.... majors can downsize their own flying and WO flying at will, but not contract regionals.