Not at all the case from people I know in the job hunt. But we all have different sample groups I suppose.


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Yes, yes, no.

 

I don’t know about the Air Force, or any military service pilots. Cargo probably fits culturally closer to military pilots compared to passenger flying. But I spent a dozen years at the regionals and the whole time I was there (and speaking with contemporaries at several other regionals), cargo came up about 10% of the time as the top tier of places to work.

Just wait, in a few years, the pilot shortage will hit cargo before it hits any passenger airline.

 

Yep, I think the military considers it as a far higher option. Flying overnights, not so big a deal, schedule changes, not so big a deal. Passengers were an afterthought. Definitely two ways of thinking.


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During my decade at the regionals few of my co-workers were trying to get on at a major cargo carrier. I think this was only because our network was largely other passenger pilots who went on to fly at legacy pax airlines. I made the jump to cargo and haven’t looked back since.

 

That definitely hasn’t been my experience. I got hired at United and here at the same time. Despite living in a United base, I came here. I also know a guy that left United in his first year to come here, and another guy that left AA after being there for three years to come here. There was also a guy at Delta in my interview group.

 

Yes, this was more the norm. Major cargo carriers tended to be less known compared to the major pax carriers. Also, there was the perceptual differences many regional pilots had about the passenger airline lifestyle versus the cargo airline lifestyle, in that one was viewed way more “glamorous” than the other. I don’t know, maybe it’s a generational thing?


This, to me, was definitely the exception. Just as I ended up here instead of any passenger airline. My first choice was FedEx. But over the years, that changed for personal reasons. Then I came back around when circumstances changed. But as the other poster above also seems to say, this tends to be the exception.

Point being is that I don’t think pilots pick FedEx over ups, or vice versa, because of the stock price, profitability, or size of the pilot group, or change in the size of the pilot group. They pick one or the other because they have a buddy working there that explains to them what it’s really like (with all the great benefits of flying for one of them) as opposed to what the perception is from regional pilots in general about cargo flying. There are more buddies working at AAL, DAL, SWA, UAL (about 55K), than there are at FDX or UPS (8K). And because of this perception, there will be a shortage at cargo before there will ever be one at passengers, especially when considering that that perception is perpetuated among regional airlines where the biggest pool of pilots exist.

 

Yeah... FedEx is struggling for one of the same reasons Atlas is... Trade. Personally I think the Trade War ends after the election regardless of who wins.

 

I'm with you given that more regional guys are putting FedEx in their top two due to being fed up with pax, terminals, flight attendants, gate agents, etc. All those stressors added up over a career can be exhausting.

 

Regional pilots don’t know what they don’t know. Unless they have buddies that work at major cargo who have a frame of reference, prior passenger airline employment, and that can explain what they don’t know when it comes to differences, they don’t always put cargo at the top of their list.