135 to Major
 

Sorry I know this question gets asked all the time but I’m struggling a bit. Currently a 135 Lead Captain on a heavy corporate jet that’s in the pool at Frontier. Just got a raise to a respectable but slightly above average and been loyal to this company for 6 years. Built it from the ground up to a well run flight dept. Love my job mostly and am semi close to the owners of the plane. Have a great coworker who we get along well. Love my house but the city isn’t really interesting to live in. Wife hates it and wants to relocate back to our hometown so I applied to be able to commute plus the upsides of more $$ in salary and retirement. Never wanted to be an airline guy but now I do see it as mostly a job and want to maximize my skillset financially. This is a great opportunity and am excited to have the chance to start a new journey. I’m nervous to take the massive paycut 1st year but I have saved considerably to prepare for it. How did your decision to move to a Major play out when you were in my situation?

Most that I've talked to wished they had done it sooner, and never looked back.

Usually people linger in corporate/135 because they like the town the live in...

There was a guy in my new hire class who faced an almost identical dilemma. The primary difference being that he was already living in his hometown and the airline domicile was also in his hometown. He felt bad about having to tell the owner that he was leaving. The owner tried to keep him by offering a significant pay increase. He showed the owner the compensation package at the airline he was going to and explained that the owner probably didn’t want to match it. The owner couldn’t believe pilots were paid so much for less actual work. You will definitely be better off financially and likely come to enjoy the job more.

Appreciate the input for sure. It’s a new world out there so happy to be a part of it.

If you can do it, i would say run. I’m about to leave a captaincy in 135 to a regional for a better shot at the majors. It sounds like staying 135 may be hindering that ability in terms of the big 4 majors.