Kalitta or Atlas....and go.
 

Would love to hear non-cynical thoughts from people with actual experience at one, the other, or preferably both.

We have a lot of guys at Atlas who bailed from Kalitta. I don't believe anybody at Atlas is bailing from Atlas to go work for Connie.

That should tell you all you need to know.

Not trying to put down Kalitta, just stating my observation.

This can't be a serious question.

Yeah...no comparison. Atlas.

I'm a K4 alumni, and I loved my time there, but Atlas is the Delta of the ACMI sector, at least at this point in time. Not dissing my alma mater, but they are doing some good things at Giant.

I would strongly advise against Kalitta. You are potentially playing resume roulette with your record and career. There are rogue check airmen who pride themselves on taking crews down for minor things and they have the complete support from their superiors. In addition to that, there is an on going, bitter contract negotiation. There is a very acrimonious relationship between management and the pilot group. Kalitta or Atlas? I can tell you Atlas pays substantially better. Kalitta is the bottom feeder of the cargo/freight world.

I echo the nod for Atlas over Kalitta, and concur with comments made above in support of that choice. Never worked for either, but I've had friends at both dating back to Connie's days and the beginnings at Atlas. I used to fly NW 747 freighters out of ANC, so I had pretty good immersion in the freight dog world; I encountered guys from both places on a regular basis. And in my current "world" I fly with tons of ex-Atlas/Polar guys, and a few Kalitta. So over the 25 year or so time frame I'm thinking of, my impression is there was never a time that Kalitta was a better place to work. I think the gap has widened these days, as others have suggested. Even if upgrades are presumed to be faster at Kalitta, I'd still suggest Atlas (unless your goal is a free agent contract captain on the world market - that's no picnic either). I was a Saab captain when my contemporaries from Atlas and Kalitta were 747 captains, and we're all in the ballpark of the same place; wide body copilots or narrow body captions at pretty decent passenger operations. Good luck with your decision, if you have one. I

As one that flew for K4 for 7 years and is presently at 5Y I will offer my opinion, if you would like to PM.

Having spent almost 8 years at Kalitta, go to Atlas. The absolute worst that will happen is that Atlas will be no better.