I have made the decision that it is time for me to restart at a new regional. That said I have done a lot of research on the companies and am currently torn between Eagle and ExpressJet (ASA). Below is a list that I have compiled so far. I am curious to see if anyone else has see's anything that should be added, removed. Or even just any constructive opinions about either place. I have yet to find something that tips the scales in either direction.


American Eagle
Positive
• Coming out of bankruptcy
• Historically a solid company
• Decent flight benefits
• Hiring now
• Wanting 600 pilots this year (quickly get the base I want and off reserve)
• $5000 signing bonus (nearly offset the cut of going back to first year pay)
• Best reserve rules in the regional industry
• Flow through for most of their pilots (fast movement up the seniority list)
Negative
• Uncertain future (regarding AMR and being divested or not)
• Losing American flying to other airlines
• Potential AA/USAir merger (not knowing how that will effect Eagle's flying and the flow throughs)
• Last time they wanted 600 pilots in a year they hired a few hundred then furloughed
• Overly hard training department

ExpressJet (ASA)
Positive
• Great Commuter Clause
• Long stay / short stay hotel rules
• Best flight benefits for a regional airline (on Delta, United, and maybe American)
• Owned by Skywest Inc.
• Historically a solid company with good management
• Flying the CRJ
• Duty rigs (min day, ect)
Negative
• Only hiring into a pool (Classes may start in April to this summer)
• Delta may be pushing them to do flying for cheaper
• May be taking concessions
• Has a lot of 50 seat planes for United and Delta
• Sloppy merger between ExpressJet and ASA
• Bad reserve rules
• Limited movement (right now)

 

Exactly my dilemna! I wish I could offer advice but I am just as divided on this one. Let me guess...soon to be ex 9E?

W

 

I fly at Eagle and been here for two years, since I started flying at Eagle they hired 700, the did a political furlough of 50 to then recall and offer a 5k bonus. Some senior pilots flowed, with some flowing in 6 weeks. Upgrade time went down to five years and now is close to seven. 22 CRJs were received as growth aircraft and 33 ATRs returned with the rest and all the ERJ 135s being return by years end.

ASA, very limited hiring for a while and then saw the ERJ side hire a bunch just to stop it dead in it's tracks and offer LOA and starting a large amount of hiring on the CRJ just to have it stopped a few months later. Now non of the SKW regionals are hiring and it seems like United will soon have plans to re-fleet and we don't know how that will work out.

This is only the last two years at these two regionals, since I was hired much has changed and much will change in the next year. I don't think Eagle is going anywhere anytime soon and is currently hiring, ASA is not hiring and we don't know when the people in the pool will get the call yea there is what HR says and the pilots here say but we just don't know when ASA will hire or for that fact when Eagle will stop hiring. You will know when you made the right decisions on the day you walk away and reflect.

 

Oh and where/when did you hear that ASA wont have a class until April? Last I heard was early March.

 

BK, and the fact that they are being cut loose from AMR pretty much deletes their solid history.

Makes sense


All kinds of risk vectors there. I'd be nervous.



That's a problem, since you're already starting your seniority clock over.

Possibly.
I doubt the pilots will. Major pay is on the rise and they want us to take cuts to our B scale??? I think too many people would walk. The company might have to take a hit but they'll be limited in their ability to pass that on to the pilots.

Assume 1-for-2 swap out. Find out when their contracts expire.



I think your choices are really between your current job and eagle. If you stay with your current job, then you might consider ASA if they start hiring later. But you can't really compare an airline that's hiring with one that might be hiring later.

 

Is Eagle training department that much more difficult than Skywest???

 

If it isn't; and they hear about it, they will up the difficulty just to maintain their reputation as the hardest.

 

I've never experienced the SKW training department but have flown two airplanes at Eagle and I don't think the training is hard. You are asked to be an adult and prepare, you are asked to be responsible and study. Like anywhere we have good and bad instructors, we have guys who are straight foreword and some might like to play games and try to task saturate you and overload you to the point that failure is a possible outcome. I have never experienced this or have heard of anyone about share it but I have read about it online with the online tuff guys. I do know of a handful of guys who did not make it at Eagle but made it at SKW, I know of a handful of Mesa pilots who did not make it at Eagle. I don't think is much about the training but more about your attitude and willingness to learn.

 

You got me

One of the guys in my new hire class interviewed their this week. That's what they told him. And of coarse remember that the recruiting department's job is to make it glass look full.

Rick7777 Thanks for the break down that was excellent. I've been thinking a lot along those lines.

This is a question I've really wanted to know myself. When I bring up Eagle a lot times their hard training department is brought up. I'm not scared of a hard training department, but figured it is a negative. That said, I might actually like their training department. If their hard means their good. Where I'm coming from it was almost hard because we weren't really trained. Example, how Eagle is handling their FO's becoming ATP qualified vs Pinnacle. That was hard.

 

This is not a certainty, it's an option as it has been since 1997 when all the AA regionals were consolidated and it has been talked about frequently over the last few years but is not a sure thing. We will find out soon enough. I would think that someone who applies today will find out the future of Eagle before having to sign the contract as AMR says that they will know about the merger and such by month's end. But we know how deadlines work.