Cujo665

With the new pay scales and FO's starting at $50k salary and top step in five years of $65k it's actually a realistic job. The starting CA pay is $78k and tops at $100k in just 5 years. Try that at one of the other regionals.

Then add in Home Basing with positive space tickets to/from work and never having to jumpseat commute. Never needing a crashpad. Long Call from home. Keeping all Hotel, Air and Rental Car points. Crew Cars at most overnights. Crew Meals provided on duty days over 12 hours. CASS/KCM provided. iPads, totally electronic paperwork, release, W&B....everything by iPad. Small but growing company that plans to add larger equipment as loads increase. Basically a small Allegiant/Sun Country doing vacation and destination flying in smaller jets allowing them to reach into smaller markets.

They've got their problems like all regionals; but how they treat their pilots isn't one of them. The exception is the always late monthly schedules. The other thing I don't like is they use 18 day duty a month. This always includes 2 Long Call days at home that NOBODY has ever been called out from; but that doesn't mean they couldn't. The problem I have with it is that as you gain seniority elsewhere you are able to bid for lines with more days off. Via is the same 16 days on the road for a new hire as for the most senior guy. I think that will change as they get more guys with over two years of 121 service.

Overall I like what they're doing, and how they're doing it. It's nice to see a regional that actually treats their people as valued employees and friends instead of just saying it.

This is a repost to get into the proper part of the APC forum. The airline has moved over two years ago from Charter to scheduled 121 & scheduled 135 service. The E120 Turboprop does EAS flying on the 135 certificate allowing them to hire lower time FO's. The E145's do the scheduled 121 routes.

They suffered numerous issues when first starting. The first batch of aircraft were purchased from another regional, and that's all I'm saying about that. Since having them on property two years, most of the issues have been worked out to the point that dispatch reliability is about on par with other regionals.

CBreezy

Not a regional. Mods, please move to Charter.

rickair7777

Well, it kind of is now. Scheduled 121 EAS + 30/50 seat planes = regional.

TransWorld

Right or wrong, APC shows Via listed in the regional group.

This thread SHOULD be placed under regional Other, not regional no category. That is consistent with the other Via thread.

Cujo665

Raven, Corvus & PenAir are in this section on the forum, which is why I put this here too. Up to the mods, but I think a bunch of threads would have to all be moved too....??

Many are in both. I suppose if folks actually used it as the “regional no category” section I’d agree too....But it isn’t used that way in practice. I do see your point, but there’s not much consistency yet.

TeamSasquatch

Do the 16 days on the road include travel from home? Or, are you traveling on days 0 and 17? I’m the kind of guy that doesn’t want to move to base, and would rather knock out the time in one big chunk. I’m not sure if we will ever see homebasing beyond this at the regional level? But, it’s real popular in the 135 world and keeps people around.

Cujo665

Includes travel in the 16. Most often day 1 is travel to work and go to hotel. They have a guy coming from as far away as China. The last day is either just go home, or do a turn and then go home. You can get it broken up in two large duty blocks if you’d rather do two 8 day stretches or some other variation. I like the 16.

The monthly scheduling is their weakest point. They are always getting them done very very late in the month. They are good about getting you specific days off when requested, but the schedules seem to always come late.

They will however book you on connecting flights rather than direct if it saves $20 bucks. You get the air miles, The hotel points and if needed the rental car points.

Home basing is also catching on big in the ACMI portion of the industry also.

TeamSasquatch

Thanks for the reply!

Cujo665

It also has an open jumpseat policy. Any 121 or scheduled 135 pilot in CASS can jumpseat. Only limit is available seating. Cockpit jumpseat is FCFS with Via pilot priority over OAL. List at the gate.

Route map
https://www.flyviaair.com/route-map

TransWorld

Agreed. I asked Nick, before he left, to move all the other (Raven, Corvus, PenAir plus a few more) into the Regional Other folder. He just didn’t have time to get it done before he departed. He agreed it was a good idea.