I don't chime in very often, but this is a subject near to my heart. I will be gone from K4 in a little over a year. When I walked in the door in 1992, I would have sworn that this would be a 6 month job while I looked for a better gig. Funny how life changes.
You get a couple choices in destiny. Be happy with your life. Or, chase the money. Sometimes you get to hit the lottery and get both. But not often.
I have career long friends who work for the majors. Most of them are content. Some are not (American). But, very few are genuinely happy with their life. They are pretty much the ones who moved to their base, which took out multiple monthly commutes.
Couldn't say which way I would vote right now. It is a bet on the future to stick around K4. But, Doug and Cory are definitely focused to continue Connie's legacy. And, there are a lot of management folk who are hanging their hat on this being a lifetime job.
Having said that. You can be confident that a job with the big 5 (7 if you count UPS and FedEx) will keep you well for your career. But, if it is just for the money, don't count out the little airline that could. We had just over 150 employees when I showed up. Think we have a few more now...

^^nicely said ^^

Completely understand your dilemma. I’d be very selective if in your shoes. That said, Ups FO’s with a few years in probably make comparable money to you with more headroom too look forward to.

I did. I had interviewed with one of the 5, 2 months prior to coming to K4. I did not get the job but was offered to re-interview in 6 months. I never called them back. That was nearly 2 1/2 years ago and I have zero regrets.

With that said everyone is on their own path. For some people its the money, for some its the retirement or both. For some they just want to be recognized for flying for “insert airline name here”. For other its quality of life. To me and me only... coming to K4 woke up my inner child and re-grounded me in an industry I was beginning to feel had turned its back on me.

I have no idea what the future holds. I have 23 years left, and this is the most fun I have EVER had flying (and I have had some incredible flying opportunities) I make more than enough here to provide a nice life for me and my family and still put a nice chunk in the bank for rainy days. If this next contract goes half as well as I think it might, its gonna have to take some serious juju for me to put my apps back out again.

It will be sad to see ocskyguy leave, he has done a tremendous amount of work towards getting us to the point we are now. Him and the folks like him are one of the reasons I am here and hope to stay.

No one can tell any of us any single choice that is right for us and our families- each of us individually needs to decide that for ourselves based on our needs and wants and responsibilities. For myself, I can say that Kalitta is a great match for my lifestyle and my personality. Enough so that I have turned down legacy opportunities which I didn't feel were as good of a match for me. So those of you looking for a slot with the legacies, you're welcome ;-)

That being said, it's important for all of us to look at not only our present needs and wants, but trying to project to the future. And I think that's an area that K4 could definitely improve on, as many of the legacies offer significantly better retirement savings packages. For those of us who don't have another 20-30 years to go and who've already been fortunate enough to build up a decent 401k from our past careers, it's maybe not as important. For younger folks with family, it's certainly much more of a factor to consider.

I have a decent 401(k) stash but 16% was a major factor in moving on. That 16% will make first-year pay the same as what I had at K-4 and was tough to turn away. Plus living in my legacy base so I can sit reserve from home.
If I had to commute I would have probably stayed. I had no complaints about K4. Other pilots were great. I loved the overnights. I was always treated well and felt like I was part of a family.

I know at this point there are so many unanswered questions and variables at work it's be nothing but a broad guesstimate but:

For you guys at K4 presently that know and understand the tone of the company how do you see things playing out (hypothetically) over the remainder of 2020 in consideration of the the current business and travel impact of Covid-19?

More specifically, if one were to start with the company in the next month or so what chance do you all feel there'd be a furlough by year's end? High, medium or low?

Low.

The Company knows about COVID-19 and it's potential impact. I think, and a few have said (Cargolux), that all the lift wants to be ready for when COVID-19 dissipates and there is a huge need for lift in China.

We will see though...

Magic 8-ball said: low.

Thanks for responses gents. I can certainly see the lift need into Asia absolutely exploding if the warm weather knocks down infection rates to near nothing. Just resupplying Asia with consumables I can see will keep the cargo carriers quite busy this summer.