FlyRight2876

Expressjet is the new Mesa. We will hire anyone dumb enough to come here...

PhantomHawk

Once you get out of the regional world, you VERY quickly see the error in thinking any regional is better than another. They all exploit their labor and bid low to win flying that the pilots will then subsidize. Get your time, get out. Whether it be LCC or ACMI or Major.....get to one of them and then decide what your long term future is.

Longhornmaniac8

I respectfully disagree. It's one thing to say that regional contracts suck compared to LCC/ACMI/Majors, and I'd certainly agree with that. It's also one thing to say that the regional model works off of undercutting bids. I'd agree with that, too.

But it's a completely different thing to basically put them all on a level playing field. It's precisely that type of attitude that can result in no improvements for anyone. The only way things will improve at the regionals is when people start voting with their feet. Whether that's pilots on property leaving a "bad" regional, or with people not yet on property choosing to go somewhere else because their situation is "better."

You don't have to have left the regionals to understand that we (the regional pilots) are being exploited. And maybe from a high-level when you're making $250K+ a year at a larger carrier with a much better contract/work rules the differences between the regionals look small, but that doesn't mean they're not significant differences among them. None (few) of us are here by choice; we'd all much rather be working with better contracts and higher pay, and I'm not going to stand in the way of that happening at all. But in the interim, every regional pilot who "sucks it up" at a regional with a crappy contract just to get in and get out is tacitly admitting their value, or lack thereof. This hurts the pilot group as a whole.

PhantomHawk

I saw it for MANY years, and I respectfully disagree with your respectful disagreement. When I was hired at XJT, it was one of the “places to be”. It was XJT, Air Wisconsin, and Comair. Today, the two that survived are dumpster fires. The places that SUCKED were Pinnacle and PSA. Pinnacle is now Endeavor and pays the best, and everyone I know that went to PSA has been an American pilot for years now. There’s a cycle, and I WOULD say that it’s XJT’s turn to spring back and be a great place.......except it seems that the exploitation went too deep. You have to feed the cow in order to milk it. The NUMEROUS inept management teams over the years did nothing but milk, and never fed. I hope it works out for y’all, but I used to think we were “better than the others”, and that it would pay off for us. Guess what.......you aren’t, and it hasn’t. Not trying to sound like a dick, I’m trying to say that there’s a perception when you’re inside the trap, that the trap is going to get better.....because you deserve it. It doesn’t work that way.

Arliss

I'll add gas to this fire:

Based on conversations I've had with pilots from other regionals, even at our worst Xjet is still generally a more pleasant place to work than others. We definitely have stronger contractual rules. The 2 TSA pilots I met recently had particularly bad horror stories.

aero0729

If XJT is the new Mesa at-least its $40 per hour +$2500 quarterly with a decent contract. Better than $36 + 0 and a crappy contract.

Longhornmaniac8

The very fact Pinnacle (dba Endeavor) went from worst to first is proof of my point. The same could be said for my regional (Republic).

There's no sense of entitlement on my end. I believe all regional pilots should be paid more than they are, and I don't believe one group is inherently better or more deserving than another. But the simple reality is that when compared to one another, there are monumental differences between the best of the bunch (Endeavor, Republic) and the worst (TSA, GoJet, Mesa).

It is cyclical, and there's certainly an element of truth to the notion that as one pilot group improves their contract, it makes it easier for the airline to be undercut by others who haven't gotten the improvements.

Nevertheless, a rising tide lifts all ships, and that's exactly what we've seen over the last decade. It's all supply and demand. The demand for pilots has increased, and in order to be competitive, the various regionals have had to make themselves more marketable. It's a far cry from the late Oughts and early 2010s in the regional world.

Over the last 5 or so years, the regionals have segregated into those that been able to retain pilots well and those that haven't. Those that have kept their performance metrics up and grown as a result. While I readily concede that cost is the most important factor in the regionals, if it were the only one Mesa would rule the world.

FredFlyer52

I’m sorry to jump in here but it seems like a lot of you are speaking from experience. I’m currently in the process of interviewing with multiple regionals and came across this thread. What do you guys mean by the QOL isn’t good? That the contracts aren’t good? I’m being told that XJT has a bunch of new 175s coming down the line and there’s basically a 3 month “reserve tour” no matter what base with the exception of Houston and Knoxville. The pay with the bonus isn’t too far off from endeavor. What’s the biggest drawbacks to XJT?

Lebron

To be honest with you there are very few Kool-aid drinkers here. The contract imo is among the best with regionals and QOL is good for line holders. The biggest issue at XJT is the new owners unwillingness to address certain things they promised after the contract. And the new company not respecting certain parts of the contract and taking shots at it by reassigning illegally, and Rolling of days off.

At the end of the day it’s a regional, and you are second class citizens compared to the majors. Get your time and get out. I believe it’s still a good bet amongst others with growth on the horizon but as always make the best decision for yourself.

DoSomePilotStuf

The deal right now is there is a lot of transition happening. The company is very short on pilots and it’s the middle of summer and peak demand. Therefore pilots are being overworked and stretched to the limit. Pilots that are on reserve here are flying their butts off. So compare that to regionals where pilots are flying 10 hrs a month or less and it should be a no brainer for you. However for someone with years of seniority (of which there are a lot) who are used to the highest QOL in the industry (which XJT has historically had) and you end up with a lot of complaints. Also a lot of people left the company as it was shrinking over the past several years. When a company shrinks upgrade times go high and so a lot of people felt they were better off starting at the bottom of a different seniority list. Now there is tons of flying with tons of growth potential, which has led to the overworked scenario.

Going forward the attrition should stabilize, the workload should return to normal and the training department should be able to turn out pilots at a faster rate. Upgrade times will come down to 2 years or less one way or another. Although the most recent captain award was to an FO who had been here 3.5 years, there are only 400 pilots between that pilot and a brand new hire, of which 200 have joined since Jan 1. To simplify, you need 800 new hires to upgrade 400 FOs. If they can get to 60 per month getting out of training (work left to do here but they are building the foundation) then 800/60= 13.33 months. In other words, come now and as soon as you hit 1000 hrs you will upgrade. And because we are short handed and spread thin you will get 1000 hrs here as fast or faster than anywhere else. Definitely much faster than Endeavor.

Add in upper 1/3 pay, industry leading benefits and commuter policy and I can’t imagine why you would pass the place up. Just remember when you sign up to fly for a regional the idea is to be stepped on and run over. It’s like that everywhere. Bottom line, get in NOW. Get on the front end of the wave, not the back end! (SkyWest, Republic, Endeavor)