Fractional v. Airlines?
 

I'm looking at having my ATP by next summer and know a lot about the airline route but very little about the fractional (or corporate) industry. From what I'm seeing, most fractionals require about 2500TT, so I would probably need to go to some sort of regional anyways, right? Could I go from a company like Cape Air or Air Net to fractional? Can anyone give me their opinion as to which is better with respect to pay and QOL?

Please forgive the vagueness of this question, I'm just trying to open my options but don't really know where to start. Hopefully this will point me in the right direction, thanks!

sfitz -

I suggest using the search function and typing in corporate into the 'search in titles' function.

There will be numerous threads discussing the particulars of the questions you are asking. You certainly aren't the first to have these questions. I'm sure many of your more wide ranging questions could be answered from those threads and maybe they will spark some less vague and more targeted questions about the options available between the two career paths.

Just remember during your search, there are three types of jobs you will find: fractional, charter, and corporate part 91. Even if you are looking at the same type of corporate aircraft, compensation, benefits, work rules, and quality of life will vary wildly depending upon which segment you look at.

Executive Airshare hires F/O's at 1200 hours and starting pay is 36K and I am pretty sure they are looking for F/O's now in most bases.

Personal opinion only here...

The airline route, while perilous in the beginning regarding regionals, normally provides a higher upside potential. There is a defined route from newbie regional FO to major wide body CA with all the associated bumps along the road. That's not to say that there is not a corporate job that pays well, with defined days off, etc. as there are some. The path to a top tier corporate job with major airline pay, days off, and bennies is a little more cloudy than the airline path. Networking pays a much, much larger role than the airlines and honestly the job is a lot different. I've done Part 135 charter in the past and can honestly say that I much prefer the airline side. Much more predictably and defined job responsibilities. No pagers on days off and bosses telling you to go fly or else. I'm an 8th yr major pilot and will gross 130k this year while averaging 18 days off per month. All the majors provide a B fund style retirement or a 401k match that puts anywhere from 13-18% of your W2 earnings in a stable retirement fund, fully separate from the company (ours is a TRowe Price account). Again to reiterate I'm sure there are some great corporate jobs out there. However, the major airline CA position is still the holy grail of all aviation jobs. The current contract bargaining cycle and current/future retirements has the airline side set to reap large gains given back after 9/11.

If you want to be a airline pilot I would agree with you - - but there are people who actually don't want to be airline pilots.

I liken this statement to those who say that being a fighter pilot is the holy grail of aviation, yet there is always the heavy/helo guy who says he had the grades and didn't chose fighters for a reason.

I believe both :D

I second this! ^^^

Hope its a good reason. I bet if you have 10 guys that are qualified to be fighter pilots 9 out of 10 of them choose the fighter side. I havn't met too many people that can truly say they didn't want to be a fighter pilot at some point. Talk about having the coolest job in the world.

Not really. I've met a few that had the chance and said not no but heck no. I'd rather be strapped in to a C17 than a F16 any day.

the guy who graduated first in my UPT class chose a KC-10..... not everyone wants to fly fighters...