Evil

Fellas,
New guy looking to jump in a couple of years. AF pilot with 1600ish single seat hours. In your crystal ball, what place will have the best prospects in late 2013 early 2014?

Evil

Also, in your opinion, what is the airline that you'd put on top of your dream sheet? I'm not too picky, right now, but would love to hear some opinions.

Evil

Sorry for the multiple posts here, guys. For my dream sheet, probably like everyone, I'm after competitive pay (not necessarily highest) with the fastest chance to get a good schedule. After the AF, time at home is #1 priority. Thanks.

acl65pilot

If you are looking at time at home, I would watch AMR, DAL , UAL, FDX and UPS and see how the new FT/DT ruling will effect each of those staffing models.

Here at DAL you can sit reserve in base, barely work and make OK money. To make a living, you would need to work your butt off. SWA will at the current time work you the hardest but pay you the best for it. I suspect that fact will change.

If you are looking for quick career progression, DAL and AMR have significant retirements in the next ten years. (Over half of their lists) USAir does too, but they still have not merged.

Honestly, with a few years until you are faced with the decision, wait and see where each airline is at. I suspect a lot of merging etc will happen and the landscape will be totally different.

DAL 88 Driver

I agree with ACL's advice. If you're two years away from making a decision, forget about even trying to figure it out now. Things will most likely change considerably by then. Long range planning in the airline industry is about 6 months!

Evil

Probably going to be flying with the ANG for the first 5-7 yrs in the airlines, so I'll have some supplemental pay (an extra 15K or so) to augment sitting reserve. Out of curiosity, as lets say a 5th yr FO on a 737, what would sitting reserve in base pay you?

Clear Right

If you truly want to spend time at home, then here is how I would play the game with options.

1) Get hired by Guard or Reserve unit in the same town or driving distance from a major airline domicile.
2) Hope to get hired by the major airline that has the domicile in your town.
3) Ideal world, Guard or Reserve unit and airline domicile all in same town, but very difficult to pull off.
4) If you have to commute, live in Guard or Reserve unit town and commute to airline job. This allows you to pick up Guard or Reserve duty on days off to supplement the low paying years.
5) When all else fails, don't get wrapped around the axel on where you live, treat it like the military. Living in your home base makes the airlines a very tolerable and enjoyable career. This is just my opinion and many will disagree, but if family time is your goal you don't want to commute. Commuting makes an airline job miserable. Again, my opinion, many folks commute and they deal with it, some even enjoy the time away, but it sounds to me like you want to be home with the family, so avoid commuting at all costs, especially a double commute to Guard/Reserve unit and airline. Double commute is a short road to the big "D" and I don't mean Delta.
6) Good luck.

DAL 88 Driver

At Delta, 5th year F/O on a 737 pays $105.84/hour. Reserve guarantee is 70 hours and you could not expect to break that very often. Certainly couldn't count on it. At 70 hours per month, that results in an annual income of $88,905.60.

qball

Might want to use your time to get your ATP.

Evil

Thanks...not bad for doing (mostly) nothing. Even better if ANG and airline domicile are at home. Tough order on that one, though!