Schedules/Reserve/Pay
 

Hey all,

Live around KEWR and was wondering if someone could answer the following

what are the schedules like at C5 including reserve time. Are there many trips of 1-3 day length?

Ability to credit over 75 min. guaranteed?

Any open time to pick up extra trips?

Deciding between C5 and 135 operator in the area with great pay but awful training contract.

Thanks, any info will be helpful.

P.S. I am new to 121/135 flying.

Have you considered Endeavor, Envoy or Republic living in NYC? Quality of life, pays and career progression is better all around at those three.

You will be on reserve as long as you are at commutair. Line holders are placed on reserve all the time. C5 has an awful contract too, so you'd be losing out on pay AND contract if you came. Trips are usually 3-6 days, but I've been extended up to 7 days. I would highly recommend pursuing other options in EWR and NY, like Republic or Endeavor. Reserve is fairly short in EWR/NY everywhere, but they have better schedules, staffing, pay, and work rules than commutair.

For the record I know a lot of people coming out of 135 flying that much prefer airline schedules versus being on-call all the time. Good luck.

I live within one hour of EWR and had the same thought you did. After one year of being continually beat down by CommutAir, there was no option except to leave. Extended to seven days? I’ve been extended to 15 straight days on the road... that is not an exaggeration. I even explained that my father-in-law was in the hospital, and I was given no relief. They will tell you they are family friendly, they are far from it. You will hear from cheerleaders here, telling you how great it is to get your time and move on. All I can say is good luck with that if you choose to believe them. The fact is that most pilots leave CommutAir for other regional airlines.

Others on this forum will tell you that I’m just bitter. Youre dang right I am bitter.. I spent over eight months in training, then once I was on the line I was extended every single month into the days off. There is absolutely no contract. And what little contract there is, you can expect they will violate it. Good luck grieving that with the union. I should know, I was on the grievance committee. Don’t give me wrong, they tried to help, but it’s hard to help and there is little contract to actually enforce.

The company is badly understaffed, and they simply cannot keep up with attrition. They lag behind every other regional in the area in regards to contract rules. They will try to sell the career path program, but I wouldn’t buy into that if I were you.

There are 1 to 3 day trips, but it’s almost a moot point, because you will be extended and remain out for longer. The only thing that I can tell you is that you will credit over 75 hours, and you may have the ability to pick up open time. If those are positives, because you’re the only ones that I can tell you. There is absolutely no reason not to try and get on with other New York City area regionals, to include endeavor, envoy, and Piedmont.

Best of luck in your search.

Oh, and within one year of my new hire class, 2/3 of the pilots have already left. That should tell you something.

What about PSA out of PHL? EDV won't look at me as I have 0 121 time and it seems that's who they hire now

I am amazed C5 has such a thing as "conditional reserve." You are either a line holder or a reserve. Take today for instance in the sEWeR. At XJT, my flights were canceled so I get to stay home. There is no let me report and go on sit airport reserve at XJT. But this is a reason (among many others) why XJT is dying. Our scheduling section is longer than many contracts entirely.

It IS amazing. You’ll hear cheerleaders ( or those with Stockholm syndrome) say that this is normal and industry standard.
No. It isn’t. Doesn’t happen at Air Wisconsin, Piedmont, Endeavor, Envoy... you are a LINEHOLDER. If your line is canceled you are NOT suddenly a reserve sitting airport reserve for six hours.

And for th record, C5 doesn’t actually have “conditional reserve”. It’s not in the contract. Scheduling just made it up because there is nothing saying it doesn’t exist either. They changed the name of it for a while to “contractual reserve”. Some pilots flat out refuse it and just go home. Good luck doing that on probation or if you’re not a favored one. It completely bass ackwards.

Researching and interviewing with the regionals. Spoke to 2 recruiters that said different things:
#1 $10,000 retention bonus once I upgrade to captain and I am Able to sit long call reserve
#2 $1300 quarterly retention bonus once I upgrade to captain and CommutAir doesn’t have a long call reserve

Also, I saw a social media post about a sponsored happy hour for pilots in Newark. I thought it was odd and almost unprofessional or unethical for an airline to advertise drinking for its crew members. I haven’t seen another airline do this before.

#2 is accurate. There is no LCR. There is BARELY short call. It’s 75% airport reserve.