Horizon air Pilots
 

Hi all,

I just begun my job hunt, just wondering if any current pilot in horizon air has any info regarding QOL, pay, routes, upgrade and company stability.

thank you

From what I've heard Horizon is a great airline. My uncle works there and loves it. You can check the pay section of this site to see the pay. They're one of the best paying regionals and I think they offer the highest first year pay.

QOL is great. He has told me that the company really cares about their employees. He had a buddy who left Horizon for Alaska and ended up coming back. The cheif pilot gave him his old seniority number nad everything.

You can find the route map on their website. They fly all over the west coast and in the mountains. They've taken some routes for Frontier. If you want to fly a jet or get a quick upgrade it probably isn't the airline for you. They've converted the majority of their CRJ orders to dash 8s. A lot of people who go there are making a career move, they're there for the long haul.

Overall I've gotten a great impresion about it.

"The cheif pilot gave him his old seniority number nad everything. "

cough cough....bull****....cough cough....

Ok. Settle down. Now, I do enjoy working for Horizon and plan to make it my career airline. However, let's get some things straight. The company could give a rat's pink little bottom about their employees. They offer a lot of company kool-aid and some people drink a lot of it. However, the truth of the matter is, Horizon is just like every other regional out there when it comes to pilot/management relationships. They try to screw us all the time, and we hate them for it.

Why do so many people stay at Horizon? Great equipment. Great co-workers. Great flying. Livable wages. Bases in the Northwest.

Did I miss anything?

The crew meals, Baby! The crew meals! :D

Mmmmmm... I remember stealing those off inbound flights as a ramper at FedEx. Those were some AWESOME crew meals!!! Especially the ones from Japan. They had some interesting drinks in the cooler too!!! :D

...depends on what you get hired into...CRJ=good life...DHC-8's=hard knock life...

...how does that work???

I'm not sure about on the flight line, but when I worked the ramp in SEA they told me when I left if I wanted to come back and keep my number I had 6 months to return. Maybe there is something like that for the flight crews?

Only if you went to UND......

There's a few threads on Horizon going, but I'm going to shoot this out here on this one. Any rumors on how the negotiaions are going, or will be going? I'm curious to see how the pay comes out, I'm expecting it to drop. I'd really like to see the upgrade times there get cut in half, but to do that the pay might have to do the same. Anyway, if anyone has heard anything please share.

Upgrades are not going to be cut in half because we are not getting enough new airplanes to compensate for the lack of movement at the top. Also, there is a large amount of lifers here. Pay is a sticky one, as long as we all don't cave in it should stay the same or slightly better. One thing is for sure, the negotiations are going to get ugly. I love the company, but I could manage a starbucks for the same pay, and have more time at home.

Ok, thanks for that info. I fly on Horizon quit a bit and everyone, and I mean everyone, seems real happy there. Always smiling. I love the places they fly as well. I don't want to wait 6 or 7 years for an upgrade though, and can't bring myself to work for less. I know there's lifers there. My good buddy's uncle is one. They just won't leave will they. Thanks

Not with the LTD plan and 401(k) match we currently get. The upgrade has been slowly coming down, I think eventually it will stabilize around 4.5-5 yrs.

QX upgrade time
 

I'll be curious to see what happens to the upgrade times. Latest news is QX agreed to sublease 16 Q200's to Commutair starting next year. Word is Commutair would like ALL the Q200's Horizon has. That's a heck of a lot more than the original plans to retire only 9 baby dash's next year. Standby to standby on the upgrade time, I'd say QX management has some issues to look at.:confused: As for the contract negotiations, I'd say they're going to REAL ugly before it's all said and done, but I don't think the pay will change. Might see (I know this is a LOOOONG stretch) some 90 seat RJ's for the same pay as the 70 seaters. Who knows, it's aviation - the only constant thing is change:D

and rumors :D

The only way this is going to happen is if a bunch of overzealous young pilots believe management that their upgrade time will decrease. If this type of proposal is on the table, I will emphatically vote NO! You don't fly a bigger airplane for smaller pay. Do you think Starbucks would charge less for a bigger cup of coffee? Hell no! Tell all your RJ buddies to stop listening to management and get on the union message board!.....and yes, it does make me mad when I hear someone who actually flies for Horizon say anything remotely about pay cuts.:mad:

You tell 'em, QCappy! Took the words right out of my mouth. Oh, and we RJ types ARE on the union messaging board! :)

What's CommutAir going to do with all them Dashs? They'll need to double their number of pilots.

Me thinks flying for CAL out of EWR and CLE to pick up some of the slack coming off ExpressJet. CAL just announced their order for some Q400s and it looks like Commutair might be flying those. Plus they need bigger equipment than the smelly ol' 1900s theyre flying now. It should be criminal to pack human beings into the back of those things. Besides, they look dumb in the basic US Airways colors with Continental Connection painted on.

What's your grudge against the 1900? It does its job and it does it well. Sure some of them are getting a little up there in age, but they're quick little guys, most pilots love to fly them because there one of the few t-props that are handflown on a regular basis.. They weren't made for the utmost in comfort they were made to fill a niche in the industry and save regional operators dough. I'm sorry it doesn't smell like fresh roses everytime you walk in and isn't painted in your ideal paint scheme, it's the operators fault not the 1900's. I hope you aren't serious because these are ridiculous things to whine about. Get a life, dont rip on the 1900.

flew the 1900 for awhile, one the funniest planes I have flown still, loved flying it by hand, and easy to fly in rough weather, course I only had cargo in it .... and stopped it in 1600 feet one time, without blewing a tire or skidding

Oh, yeah, absolutely! Nothing like the luxury to be found in the back of your ERJ heavy jet!