I tried a search and nothing came up. I'm just wondering what the regional airline structure is like in places like Europe, Asia, etc. I know Lufthansa uses Lufthansa City Line as Lufthansa Regional, Air Canada uses Jazz, Air France uses Brit Air (amongst others), British Airways uses/used Logan Air (and British Airways Express) and so on... Are these regionals owned by their parent companies, or are they code-shared just like US regionals are. Whats the QOL and pay there? Maybe this is considered an ex-pat threat, but I thought people here might have some insight. Just looking for info, it's something i've been curious about. Thanks!

 

Moved to the Foreign section. You should get better responses here from folks who are overseas working for these carriers or come into contact with pilots from the airlines you list.

 

I'm British and used to work for a regional over there. Firstly, terms and conditions are generally a lot better, in fact if I hadn't married an American girl I'd probably still be flying over there. An EMB-145 FO earns a starting salary of £34,500 ($52,000) and a CA earns about £68,000 ($95,000). That is at bmi regional, a wholly owned subsidiary of bmi British Midland.

None of the regionals in Europe fly under CPAs or Fee For Departure like they do over here. Regional partners are either fully owned subsidiaries like bmi regional and Lufthansa Cityline or they are franchise partners, paying the airline whose name they operate under a fee to use their brand/web site/booking engine. Loganair used to do this operating as a franchise of British Airways, but since BA sold off their own subsidiary BA Connect to Flybe in 2007, Loganair now flies under the Flybe brand. If not operating as a subsidiary or franchise then most other regionals are independent, the biggest being Flybe, but there are many others such as Eastern Airways, Aer Arann, Skywork, Darwin Airline, Jetair, CityJet etc.

It's worth mentioning that getting a job in Europe is a lot harder than it is over here. Firstly you require a JAA licence and the conversion is not easy. Secondly you'll need the right to live and work in the EU and this is hard to come by unless you marry a local or have a European passport. Many carriers also require that you speak the local language. And finally many airlines expect you to pay for your type rating and in some cases even for time on type before even considering offering you a job. The market is saturated beyond belief out there at the moment, and it could be argued that the social and economic outlook in Europe is even worse than it is over here.

 

Stripes, thanks for the info. I'm not considering flying over there, I was just always curious how it worked. It must be nice flying over there...In the US, you do a 4 hour leg, your...still in the US. Over there, fly a 4 hour leg, you can be in the Riviera, Italy, France, Germany, Portugal, wherever. Must be a nice change in scenery, no?

 

It used to be pleasant, these days you're only at the airport for 25 mins before flying straight back home. The vast majority of regionals have very few overnights (I actually prefer that). I'd definitely go back if I had the option and the wife was happy to. It's something we've talked about a lot, but we're so settled here now and things are getting really messy over there. I'd only really go back for BA or Virgin these days. Otherwise we're looking very carefully at Emirates, I've got a few friends there and they seem pretty happy.

 

Probably a wise idea... Rather stay in a country thats in/coming out of rock bottom (arguably) than head to one thats on its way...(trying not to stir up a can of worms here...)

 

If you do a four hour flight in Europe, you're no longer in Europe!

 

Very true. Do a 4 hour flight in USA, you stay in 1 country. Do a 1 hour flight in Europe, your in 4 different countries...

 

The standard answer here would be "go to pprune.com" for some good answers.

This doesn't exactly cover ALL the deets, but it's a fairly decent place to start;

Pilot Jobs Network - for students of pilot schools and experienced airline pilots

In the U.S. at most "regionals", that's the case. However, when I was in LAX I could do YVR-LAX-MZT. Any of the COEX hubs you can do say YYZ-IAH-GDL, or the reverse. Any other combinations of Mexico and Canada as well.

 

How do they ever stay in business paying so much money??