pilotguy7

Welp, new pay scale came out today, and it is confidential right now, but safe to say we are the highest paid "regional" out there, or at least among the top 2. Not too shabby.

flysooner9

Is the 5,000 hour minimum for captains a hard number?

Walkeraviator

With time in type, they total time numbers could be a bit lower. In all honesty, I would just send in a resume. You never know if you don’t try.

acmi76

If you my friend have the time you say you have, I would go to a place where the future is more secure and better and where the pilot group is valued and respected. Because the brief period of 1 yr I was here at Via, the best thing that happened to me was I made some good friends on the line and got a free EMB-145 type rating out of it. I had some previous 121 time so I left as I got hired by a cargo operator on a widebody equipment and am thankful and feel blessed as I left this place quick for a better and career oriented company. I have friends who work at airports where this airline served and even when I flew there, they're reputation was not the brightest and was not seen in any positive way because of their performance and poor equipment which had maintenance issues all the time. That is why they lost the flying and were shown the door in some EAS communities and the people there today are much more satisfied and happy with the exit of Via. The pilot group is ok , but the management well, you can just laugh and clap at their fantasy and dream of this place overtaking and competing with the likes of legacy and major airlines one day.
Anyhow, its a dream and will only stay a dream based on how this place works unless they change their thinking and mindset drastically. With the experience you have, my best advice to you is by applying to this place, your only selling yourself SHORT and with the experience you have, you definitely deserve better. Good luck to you my friend in whatever you decide.

pilotguy7

I'd LOVE to know what current pilots think about the above. It seems like management is trying to right the ship, but still seems to have "small airline mentality" in some of the operations (I'm still an outsider, so I must admit, I really dont know). Pay is at or above most regionals, but it seems like they are trying to attract pilots that have good experience . . so that makes pay a little low to me. Folks in our class ranged from 1,700 TT (military, and a e145 type in hand) to a 20,000 plus heavy pilot. I felt I was "lower" with 3,300 hours (FO).
Seems like most folks in the company that I have talked to feel like this is a stepping stone job, and "if" via makes then, than GREAT. . . if not . .well, they wont be surprised. Unless an amazing opportunity shows up, I'm here for a bit, mostly because my QOL should be through the roof good, but I live at a base.

Cujo665

Every regional airline has issues. There is not one single one that doesn't have a few pilots upset over something who'll come online and bash their employer thinking the grass is greener at that other regional across the street.

If you're looking at a regional airline position; Via is better in may ways than most of the competition; and in other ways it's worse. None of the regionals is perfect. They all have their faults. My advice would be to research them all and then choose the one with the faults that will least effect you.

Here are the good points:

- No Airport Standby or Ready Reserve

-Reserve - All short call (if assigned) includes a hotel. All long call is from home.

- No commuting. All pilots are home based, and are given positive space tickets to/from work. Pilots keep the air miles and frequent flyer program awards.

- RON's and most overnights the company has monthly rental cars waiting at the hotels so the crew can go out if needed. If you are someplace other than a normal RON and they get you a rental, you keep those award points too.

- Company ipads issued while in training.

- Pilots are salary, so those mechanical cancellations, weather cancellations never effect your pay. A dead day in a hotel pays as much as a full day of flying.

- Duty days over 12 hours the company provides crew meals. Yes, they actually buy a decent meal of your own choice.

- Free single occupancy hotel in training with crew cars provided to get around.



New pay rates take effect in May. Street CA's to start at $78k. CA's top out at around $105k after 5 years. FO's start at $50k and go up like $5k each year up to $65k. There is a 401k but no 401k matching. There is no sick bank or vacation bank. you just tell them what time you need off, and as long as you're not abusing it, they build the schedules around it.

Like every regional, there's always stuff pilots will find to complain about. It really isn't that bad. The paycheck comes on the due dates. Like I said; research the ones you're interested in, and choose the one with the problem areas that will effect you the least. They've all got issues.

Mooneyguy

Nice write up! What are the schedules like? Is it line bidding?
Is it 7 on 7 off?

Cujo665

Schedules are one of the biggest problems, have been promised to be fixed for well over a year. No, there is no 7/7 or even 8/6. They talk about it, but it doesn't happen.....yet.

You'll get extended to the legal limits. I routinely did 10, 12 or more day trips. I have not worked over 16 days in any one month except by choice, and the most I did was 19. Many of those were paid days off at hotels waiting on broken planes, or were just short call reserve days at the company provided hotel which beats crashpading. Only two of the current routes/day schedules were fatigue limit pushers; the rest were nice days with mid morning starts, about 4-5 hours of flying, and an early evening or late afternoon finish. Crew cars at the outstations and in the AUS base. CLT doesn't have a crew car, just the hotel van.

The airline has great potential; but the management style is still that of a small charter company with one base, rather than a regional airline with stations all over the country. It's improving very slowly.

The planes came from TSA, and that's all I'm going to say about their reliability.

Lots of little stupid things to irritate you if you let it; but nothing intentional. They mean well, and are still learning.

Truth be told I liked it there, liked the people, and would not have left myself except an opportunity way way too good to pass up landed on my doorstep.

Walkeraviator

To reiterate what Cujo said, schedules are all over the place. They have been promising a set schedule since I got here two years ago. At first it was to be 8/6. That doesn’t work well with 117 rules, so they said eventually it would be a 6/5. Neither has happened.

The biggest gripe about the schedule is that it’s usually short notice. For a while there, we were getting our whole month schedule by the 20th of the month before. Then, our scheduler left and that meant someone else had to do schedules on top of their own job until a replacement was found. So April’s schedule really didn’t drop until today. Nobodies fault, but it makes planning your life a little difficult.

Thunder Pig

APC lists CKB as a domicile but I noticed Via Air doesn’t fly there. Same thing with LWB. Are these still domiciles? If not, does anybody have an updated domicile list? Also, does one bid for their chosen domicile like at any other airline? Or can you just choose?