PSA or ExpressJet
 

First time posting here, looking for some guidance as I near ATP mins. I was looking forward to going with PSA but after reading around here I’m reconsidering. I have a already established I’ll commute no matter what from where I live and all I want during my time at a regional is a quick upgrade, fly alongside positive people and little to no reserve time. From my understanding PSA will allow you to upgrade but force you to another domicile?

Where are you commuting from?


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MCO or make the drive to DAB if needed

MCO or drive to DAB if needed

Quick upgrade - currently hit 1000 hours and you must upgrade. change in domicile depends where you are. If CLT, you will be forced out. Otherwise, probably not.

Positive people? No meaningful difference between one regional or another. Be the light you want to see in the world :)

How about Silver?

Now ... PSA has hired a gazillion people in the last two years. Could well be a different game for new hires today.

DAB is very tough to commute out of. Orlando is pretty easy. I live in Ocala and go out of GNV and a lot of time I have to go home to MCO. I asked myself this question last year. I ended up going to Skywest for the Atlanta base one legged commute with fast upgrade and very happy I did. In 10 months I have over 600 hours and making much better money then I ever expected. Best of luck in your decision but I would avoid Expressjet. Do you research? I had a interview with PSA and turned them down for Skywest. Only you can make the choice.

Appreciate the insight, I figured asking here would be my best bet on getting real answers since I don’t know anyone in the Part 121 world other than recruiters and we know how well that can go.

To be honest, I see ExpressJet as a big gamble. One that can pay off huge dividends as wel.


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Going out of MCO would be a one leg commute to every base except for Dayton, and I think the most recent class didn't even award Dayton to new hires.

I've been here for a couple of months now and still enjoy it. I live in base so that helps with reserve. All but 1-2 captains I have been with were great and I look forward to flying with them again. We have relatively young captains especially compared to Expressjet, but who knows if that'll continue.

I have friends at Endeavor who chased the pay and have been sitting in a crashpad in NY ever since. I end up taking home more than they do after all the crashpad and commuting expenses...plus I don't have to deal with LGA/JFK on a daily basis :cool:

You'll likely be happy wherever you end up. Especially on these forums, the grass is always greener somewhere else...

Yeah I hear you on chasing the higher pay. I just want to be comfortable being a captain rather than saying you have the time now have at it, plus a company that respects that. My end goal is JetBlue or Spirit being that eventually I can hold MCO and be home. I don’t care for flow and extra money. I have CJOs from several regionals I’m
narrowing it down to PSA, XJT, and SKYW

Yeah I totally understand. To be honest...I don't know if the forced upgrades will continue to be a thing for all that much longer. We hired a ton of pilots here in 2018 and even the backend of 2017. Classes have been a lot smaller recently... Those hired in 17/18 will be upgrading and then we should have better numbers captains wise.

This all depends on if Moxy takes pilots from us, and of course other attrition.

I’m about to put regionals in a hat and draw. I don’t care about pay, flow, commute and etc.

If you don’t care about anything then go to silver and fly the SAAB sand eventually the new ATRs and be at home. If you don’t have to commute I’d advise against it. Good luck.

lol I saw the order when is that supposed to start up

Yeah like tlamja said, I think the forced upgrades will start to tapper off. Our reserve coffers are stupid full for CA in some bases and guys are going over a month sometimes without flying. One other thing to consider is FO reserve times are on the rise as well with CLT being a little over a year and all the other bases being 8-11 months. This will not help you when trying to get the 1000 hours 121 time to be eligible to upgrade. These times may go down if the pace of our aircraft deliveries picks up to arrive at our planned fleet size of 150 aircraft. I think we are in the mid 130s now. Good luck with your choice.

I think they start off with deliveries in 2020? Or 2021? Not sure but if its 2020, they’ll start hiring probably late this year to get pilots in training and what not.

I also don’t know what kind of minimums they’ll have. Frontier is now hiring guys right out of college with 1000 hours and 25 hours of multi engine time, so it wouldn’t surprise me if Moxy could be taking a number of our (and other regional) pilots and applicants.

This should be an interesting year for sure.