Horizon Guys/Gals...
 

I saw that horizon is hiring again, and previously i didnt have the time when i applied...I'm from Seattle originally and would love to be back there at some point, i know about the upgrade times and that doesnt matter too much to me right now. I'm still in my first year with another regional flying the CRJ 200 and 700's, my question is.... Is horizon worth the change!? :confused:

If living and being based in Seattle is your number one concern (and living and being based where you like is HUGE when it comes to quality of life), then you should go ahead and apply.

Seniority matters most in this market.

Whats the reserve times look like in PDX and SEA??

What are they hiring into??

How do you apply?

I have a few friends that work there and they are still on reserve after over a year with about 8 people under them.

Finished IOE at QX last Jan. Im in the RJ and they have not done a ton of hiring since our class. I can hold a line/composit, but not worth picking the lines since I get the last few..so I just put L (for line) and get what ever line is left. So over a year and still getting left over lines. Yeah that kinda sucks. Though I'm at a stable place, making $38 an hour as 2nd yr F.O and live at base (because I like it here, not because I have to) and the area is inexpensive enough I put 10% in thhe 401K and still put another $200 a month in the bank. And yes...I do have student loans.....To the tune of 400 a month. I split a two bedroom apt. that has a washer/dryer and free cable and my share is $335. Ask if anybody in ORD LAX or EWR can get a decent place for that. Yeah upgrade is slow here, but I suscribe to the notion that "is a marathon - not a sprint" The company treats us well, respectivly..every company has its issues and no matter where you go there will always be unhappy folks. I have my quirks too about the company, but overall im happy. If the upgrade were 2-3 years instead of 5-6 this place would be a dream. Let me know any questions you have

I have been here since last October and already have 34 people under me and am fairly close to holding a line.

If they are interviewing and you have time, then do the interview; you can always say no. On April 24th the Air Group is supposed to make an announcement about changes to the fleet. If Horizon is not planning on growing anytime soon there will be little movement here. If you are a line holder and feel secure where you are then your quality of life will be much better where you are.

Hope that makes sense....

Supposedly there is going to be an announcement of some sort this Thursday.

Hi there
I want to ask to the people who work in Horizont who hard is to conmute from san diego if I get hired?
I dont have the 750tt but I have 620tt with 50 multi do you guys think I should give it a try?
thanks

I wouldn't bother trying until you have the mins at least. I flew with a ACP last month and was told that they were only calling you if you had an internal rec. No sure if this is still applies but the guy I recomended got an interview and got hired. Commuting to PDX or SEA is not really that hard if your on the west coast.

As for future hiring that is all up in the air. At this company you never know. One quarter it is a huge amount then the next it is none. We have some pretty lousy reserve rules that can allow you to be screwed over constantly but in the end it is a decent company to work for.

We are most likley on the brink of something major here. Either we will get rid of all the RJ's and not replace them with 400's resulting in furloughs <---(I doubt this one) or they are gonna get rid of the RJ's and replace them with the options we have for more 400's. The "announcement" will likely come after the first quarter financial results on the 24th.

Thats AWSOME! I already love that company!:D ...sell the jet, replace it with the props...:rolleyes:

Aviation Conference
 

I went to an aviation conference last February. Horizon Air had a table there and was actively trying to recruit pilots. I reached them around noon and they told me that I they were not receiving much interest.

SkyHigh

For new hires there is a class May 1 of 6 and June 1 of 8 all going to the q400. There was a q400 class on OCT 31 and the ones that are based in SEA already can hold lines, there are quite a few that bid reserve to be home. The RJ reserve is still a while, a little over a year and as stated above reserve sucks unless you live in base. Example: you get assigned a 7pm sign in, you still need to be within 1.5 hours of PDX at 1030, thus you sit around all day.
I agree that there will be changes in the future, one thing I may see with oil $113 per barrel, that they will ground a few RJs ASAP. The captain that I just flew with in 58 and said that if they get rid of the RJ that he is done with QX. AS much asa this kills me, I can see that we can get rid of 6 RJ. There are some trips that go PDX-GEG-BOI-SEA-GEG. That can be flown with a q400, the RJ can not make $ on routes like that, the RJ can do well on the PDX to SoCal routes.
With the troubled times in the industry I feel that I am in a fairly good spot. Management has its issues and I hope that they makes some good decisions for the future. Everyone was ****ed about the Frontier going away but it looks like they made a good decision.
One thing to be aware of: QX has great flying, great people, good a/c and great technologys (EFB-who knows if it will ever happen). The upgrade is long and don't come here if you want to upgrade in 2 years and if you don't than you will make everyone miserable. Come here for the QOL, love for the NW, and CAT 3.

The EFBs will "start" to be implemented within the next few months. I hear it is easier to hold a line in the 400 based in Seattle. Yes fortunately they have continued hiring and have a few class dates lined up. I'm just a couple weeks into training and am loving it.

Are those may and june classes filled up, or there is there more hiring coming up?

May 1st.
 

I'll be in the May 1st class. I know someone who interviewed last week (she didn't make it to the sim portion), and she said they were wanting to get more into the May 1st class.

Ok, so a couple of questions: First, what base are most of the new hires going into? Can you request one? It doesn't matter much to me, but i already live in SEA. Also i applied a week ago and nothing yet.... are they still interviewing? I have about 1300TT and 140ME. Thanks!

Seems to be about half to each base. Most people in my class wanted PDX and there seems to be more movement in SEA so you could get there pretty quick, unless you get the 200 or RJ of course. Do you have at least a two year degree?

thanks for the info... and yes i have a 4 year degree. Maybe they got a lot of apps to go through?

Hopefully. Good luck.

I got the call from Jennie today, i've got an interview at the end of the month. Are all the gouges pretty spot on? what should i watch for?

Thanks guys and gals.

I dont have a two year degree but i have a junior standing in credits, is that worth anything?

Lose money, or make it......what would you prefer?

^ Couldn't have said it better.

Certainly it's worth something, but most hiring preferences do indicate a college degree. I wouldn't apply to any regional (especially Horizon) until you have obtained one.

MAnagement really loves a 4 yr degree. So, that a a big factor for them. Also, via a company email- the announcement about the RJ going away in coming shortly. I suspect on the 24th, lets hope that we are going to get some more Q400 and not just accept the orders starting in October.
By the way, the are 10 upgrades for April and mid May. Best of luck at the interview.

Hi Guys/Gals,

what is Horizon 1st year pay right now? What is the gurentee as reserve?

I guess what I want to know is how much do you take home per month as reserve or line at first year.

Also, is Santa Rosa Jr or Sr base?
Thanks!

http://airlinepilotcentral.com/airli...rizon_air.html

Santa Rosa is not a Horizon base.

So I looked at Airline Pilot Central and see that 1st year pays $29 and reserve gurentee is 75 hours. This comes out to $2175 per month. So is that what 1 year makes or are there other add-on's I need to calculate.

Also, they operate RJ,DH4,DH8. What are the chances of getting RJ with just Minimum time of 750/50?

Thanks

Min guarantee on reserve is 86.3 while lineholder is 92. That is for a 35 day bid cycle, so it makes it hard to compare to another airline. Also, regardless of what aircraft you start in you will make Q200 pay. Right now that is 28.52/hr. So based on that assuming you're on reserve for a whole year ( you wont) 28.52 X 86.3=2461.28 per bid cycle. So 35 days in a cycle/364 days = 10.4 bid cycles per year. 2461.28 X 10.4=25597.28 per year. Now at QX you get paid every other week. so 26 pay cycles / annual min guarantee = 984.51 per paycheck. This of course does not count per diem or flying above min.

As for the RJ question, the current debate (unless you ask rj guys/gals) is that those may be parked. Not sure, but apparently the Airgroup 2nd quarter earnings call on 4/24 will reveal the fate of QX so stay tuned and good luck!

I started at QX in Oct of 06 and our class finished IOE in Jan 07. In 2007 which was 75% (thats all I could hold in the RJ) I grossed $34,500 with all the extras. Not bad for first year considering reserve and I could not alter or add trips like line holders do. I got my 2nd yr raise in Oct so I went from $29 to $32 an hour and in early April my seniority moved me up from the Q200 pay scale to the Q400 which is $38.60 an hr. So as a 2nd yr FO I am making 40 an hr (considering perdiem 1.80hr)....Our FO payscale pays type based on senority not what actual airframe you fly. So I should make $40,000 this year and thats not even having to add extra trips

So will this current off and on hiring trend continue through the summer, or is this just a limited time offer?

We are always on and off hiring. The trend for the last many years has been to not hire during the summer months, so all pilots are available to work the busy summer sched. Who knows for this summer, with all of the cloak and dagger secrets surrounding the fate of the RJ.

The AAG has done a good job of put out the doom and gloom sob story of the not so profitable RJ. They really want to unload that thing and get a bigger jet. The only question is who is going to fly it? Will it be QX or some other company or if it is a EMB 190 series AS ALPA wants the mainline to fly it. Please remember we are currently in contract negotiations so there could be some games being put on for the masses to consume.

We are now sending some CRJ to RDF (some place near Chicago) for heavy checks. The a/c must go through a heavy check before they are returned to the leasor. As the time gets close I feel that the RJs will be gone (I am a RJ driver) and FLyin is correct may believe this is just BS. With the price of oil I can see some grounded soon due to oil.
I hope that they replace the RJ with more Q400 and not just have us lose the #of a/c. There are a lot of senior captains that would not want to go through training again and would seek earily reitrement, if the company would allow. I suspect that something a long that line come about. Anyways, I have a feeling that may people are going to listen to the Q1 call on thursday, I for one will be listening. Lets just hope there are no furloughs, if they do go away. Good luck all.

I think Bill Ayer's last letter that he sent to my home said it all (and I'm paraphrasing because my wife tore up the letter in fury and tossed it): AAG wants to get rid of the Horizon RJs because they're not too efficient.

Now the Q400 sure is an efficient bird, but there are some longer routes that are simply best served by a jet, and those routes may not have the traffic to support a 737. Hence: Later on in the letter, he lets slip how they might seek to contract out regional jet flying to fill the void left by Horizon's RJs. Helllloooooooo Mesa!

My two cents: It's the first shot across the bow. I don't believe Ayer's prime motivator here is fuel prices; it's Horizon RJ captain prices.

That is the current theory, the 9 RJ's going through heavy checks in RFD are going somewhere. I doubt they are going to be parked, one theory is that they will be subleased to another company, the rumor is that it will be Skywest they have a need for CRJ 700's, they were apparently talking to the local FSDO about just that. The others will more than likely be included in the deal at a later date.

Like I said before AAG wants jets, but who gets to fly them is the question. I am betting that the announcement will outline the statement above along with exercising some options on the Q4. After that the games will begin with the "who gets the bigger jets". They are going to use this situation to their advantage in the contract negotiations, just wait and see.

From the van driver in pdx
 

Ok, this just in...I talked to a crew who was in Portland who did a hangar pickup and got the latest from the van driver.....the word is that QX will trade in ALL of the RJ's to Bombardier. Each RJ will get us another TWO Megawhackers. Yeah growth! /rumor

My bet is not on Mesa after all they have demonstrated.

I'm betting they would pick a "large capacity" regional, like Republic or Skywest. Again this is only if they were to contract with a third party. After all, this so-called big announcement was quoted as pertaining to "a complete revampment of Horizon's fleet."