C340

I am considering Flexjet as a career destination. I expect a lot of people might tell me that is a horrible idea, but before you do, know that I have been doing a ton of research on airlines and fractional operators. Here are important reasons as to why I feel Flexjet could make a good career destination for me:

• Home based with no unprotected commute
• No reserve
• Opportunity for domestic or worldwide flying (with the IRL not being solely seniority based, so it might not take too long to get there)
• Scheduling can be bid as short as 4 or 5 days (more like airlines), or many consecutive days in a row to get all the flying done for the month in one or two trips
• From what I gather, management doesn't micromanage or breathe down the necks of pilots (ie you are treated like a professional, trusted, and left to do your thing)
• Good maintenance/new aircraft
• You keep the points
• Vacations work out to be about 2 weeks every 4ish months by sandwiching vacation days between days off
• Pay isn't my primary motivator, and in any case, Flexjet appears to pay plenty even if it isn't quite Delta pay
• Fast upgrade
• Meals, parking, etc. covered and a company card to take care of the little stuff that adds up (ie you are taken care of while at work)
• Ive been told benefits are pretty great, and retirement will likely be improved in order to keep up

My background, which may shed some light on my priorities: I am 30 years old, single/no kids, but I am somewhat of a homebody. I love living in Oregon and have no plans to leave. I like visiting Europe or Hawaii for a couple weeks once or twice a year for vacation. All my flying has been part 91 corporate in Citations/CJ/Challenger/Hawker, and I managed a CJ for a year. I hear that fractional flying is way more work than airline flying, but coming from single pilot part 91 flying and management, I can't imagine its worse than that in terms of workload. I currently have a CJO from a regional, estimated June/July class, and I *should* be getting an interview with Alaska Airlines soon (based on what one of their chief pilots told me after meeting with them). Alaska would be my career destination if I went to the airlines primarily due to PDX/SEA bases because I am not leaving the PNW and the idea of commuting for the rest of my career sounds awful. I am not chasing the biggest paycheck. I want days at home, even if that means making less money. I want short-ish trips, which seems to be fairly possible with Flexjet (as opposed to NetJets, where 7+ days seems standard), even if I have to build a little seniority first. I have no interest in 7/7, 8/6, etc. on a regular basis. Will I end up flying 7, 8 days in a row here sometimes? Of course I will. But it sounds like that wont be the case all the time, especially given some seniority, and FlexJet appears to offer the shortest preset trip duration options out of any of the fractional/135 operators.

I get the sense that Flexjet could be a good fit for me. Is Flexjet perfect? No, but all things considered, it feels like it could be a good place to be for someone with my priorities. Having said all that, feel free to poke holes in the points I've made if I have any assumptions wrong.

I know I probably have rose-colored glasses on, but having looked into UA/DL/AA/AS/SW/NJ in great detail, every organization has its own list of shortcomings: "Oh you could be captain at Delta in less than a year"...sure...and it's such a great opportunity, all the other 8,000 FO's have passed it up. United reserve is god-awful. Alaska is a short staffed glorified regional with slow movement. American work rules suck; Southwest has deteriorated since Herb left, NetJets/Flexjet need to increase their pay and retirement in order to keep up, etc etc. My point is that nowhere will be perfect. I am coming from part 91 management, 24/7 gotta answer the phone, can't plan anything with friends and family, my boss would ask me to work even on hard days off, etc. so having a set schedule - even if I still have to greet pax and load bags - sounds like heaven compared to what I had.

But how about the company itself? Is it a wise move to place my eggs in the Flexjet basket considering company health and outlook? I see they're going public...and while I don't expect anyone here can see the future, what is the general feeling of how this will affect pilots? With no union, will management come through and make life miserable for everyone to save a buck and please shareholders? Is the company healthy from a financial perspective? Big growth plans? How are things for pilots here when the economy slumps? To compare, I know Alaska has done really well in terms of minimal furloughs when things get tough. They're weathered lots of storms over the years, and while their conservative financial approach is hurting them in terms of pilot attrition, at least pilots over there seem to have good job security as a result of that approach, historically speaking. How about Flexjet?

Thanks for any insight, and I apologize for the book I just wrote.

Rama

You may want to look in to the retirement pay. It adds up over a few decades. Alaska offers 16% into your 401k. Second year salary around 10,500/month at minimum guarantee. The additional 16k per year into your retirement is well worth looking at. Especially as your base pay rises over time. You can throw the max in to a Roth and have a decent nest egg by 60.
Not sure what Flexjet offers for retirement.

C340

Definitely a good point. Retirement at Flexjet is obviously super weak, whereas the legacy airlines seem to do great in that department. I’d kind of bank on that to change, hopefully sooner rather than later. But it’s not enough to sway me from Flexjet. I have been maxing out my own ROTH for many years now, so at least I’ve got something cooking already.

Brickfire

The gaping flaw in your logic is what happens 10 or 20 years from now. The legacies are (comparatively) stable and predictable. What you see now is probably close to what you get at retirement. Not guaranteed but likely.

Flexjet’s culture/business/existence could EASILY change substantially

Not saying don’t go there but stability/size/RLA are major strengths that flexjet just can’t match

C340

This is exactly my concern. Any obvious indicators as to potential strengths or weaknesses in the long term stability of Flexjet that you can see?

airbus

I appreciate your detailed post earlier. I am at the opposite end of the spectrum (a Retiring Airline Capt) and deciding between fractionals (although I have no offers). Your question about the future may need you to look to the past.

FlexJet took out a PPP loan and closed some crew bases temporarily during the beginnings of covid. The Chairman Ricci seems like he could be a flim flam man since the layers of the company are infinite (as far as all the other charter companies they own). However he is in several aviation halls of fame and is respected in the C-Suites as well as a pilot. NetJets held steady during th upheaval of pandemic however.

Personally, since you're single you should also do detailed research on NetJets IMHO. Their base pay is lower but you can have four meters running at the same time depending on the situation as far as their soft time (10 hours, night, arriving late to base, etc) and 33% of that goes into your 401K which is important at your age. Also they do have a 5/8 =13 days per month option also known as CC52.

Good luck, and don't look back once you take the plunge.

MtnFlying

Let's get some facts out there instead of guessing from the outside. Just want to make sure the reasons for the "closing" of the crew bases during COVID are known. While they weren't actually closed, the decision was made to use company assets (Phenom's) to move crews from larger "hubs" to their aircraft so that the operation could continue without exposing crews to the larger airport environment and airlines for travel (which was made more difficult by the mass cancellations and reduction of flights by the way...). Yes, some had to drive a considerable distance to a hub (via company provided rental car or paid mileage if you wanted to take your own car), but they were still working and that was a choice the crew members could make. With the PPP, it allowed the company to offer a crew member a set number of days to be paid each month (forgot the actual number) to just stay home. Again, crew members choice. I believe Flexjet did just fine during COVID.

As far as all of the other company's under the Directional umbrella, none of them overlap/compete against each other and most are complimentary to each other. With the acquisition of Constant Aviation last month, we now have a huge maintenance presence in house, which means we can get our aircraft serviced faster and back online to support our customers needs. Sounds like a good business plan to me.

You can make up your own mind as to the company and if it's a good fit for you, but having facts usually helps.

IMaFracGOD

It was stay home get paid for 10 days a month
Fly, work 10 days get paid for 15 that month

For the most part travel to the hubs was also on company time
Coming home for some because of the late times, causes them to stay at a hotel and go home next day. OT day wasn't paid, but the hours counted for duty and counted towards hourly duty OT

The PPP was also not a loan, it was money given that could be used for anything
Keeping employees employeed, buying a/c, infrastructure, etc....
What company wouldn't be smart to get that money

FNGFO

The PPP was in fact a loan that could be forgiven, and it could only be used for employer payroll reasons and some other things related to business costs. Like mortgage interest, utility costs etc.

It could not be used to buy new a/c.

Brickfire

Setting aside autonomous aircraft, the big 4 are too big to fail.

Flexjet is not, at all, too big to fail. Even if it’s perfectly well run now that doesn’t matter 5 years from now.