Serious question:

Do you really think AAG will not do something about our hiring numbers soon?

I think they were betting on someone going out of business to provide pilots. April is our breaking point. I look for an announcement of something between March and June.

 

How long until upgrade?

 

According to APC Skywest has 3800 pilots. PSA has 1200.

 

I would guess 2 yrs or less

 

Well, I think that PSA has a ton of aircraft deliveries due through 2017. I do not think we will stop taking the deliveries. Even IF they end up parking the CRJ200s on a one-for-one basis to take delivery of the remaining CRJ900 options or to resume AAG's transfer of the 700s from Envoy, it will still mean net growth.

There are unique issues for every single regional out there right now. I'm not so sure that any of them are going to be able to hire the number of pilots they say they want.

Most of the regionals offering good first year pay, don't offer a quick upgrade. The upgrades and movement haven't stopped at PSA. According to management, we are staffed for current flying. I would expect contractual improvements to pay and flow this year and a new hiring wave. The difference between us and a lot of other regionals are that we are a wholly-owned regional. Despite the drawbacks that Envoy, Piedmont, and PSA may have, the facts are that AAG has invested quite a bit in us and they will not want us to fail. They have now instituted a collegiate program for students to come to one of the wholly-owneds and eventually flow up to American. I think that alone speaks to the fact that we will be around for quite some time.

If you live in a PSA base then I think it's a no-brainer. If you are going to commute, pick a decent airline with a relatively easy 1 leg commute. If you want to move and live in base, pick an airline that has a base where you want to live. If I were looking at regionals today, I would be looking at Piedmont, CommutAir, and Endeavor. PSA is still attractive for many reasons, but those 3 have it going on a little bit more than we do at the moment.

 

How easy is it to commute from ORF/PHF to CLT? Are lines same day commutable? Are there many ORF/PHF overnights?

I was at a PDT meet and greet and was told PSA may be a better option for a commuter from a scheduling standpoint. One of the PDT pluses is almost immediate line holder- how long is the wait until a new hire could hold a CLT line these days?

 

February 2015 new hires are holding build up lines in CLT and they are around 900's on the seniority list.


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Why don't you just go to AWAC and not commute?

 

AWAC has risk, there is no path forward currently for AWAC. FO's from AWAC are leaving.

 

PSA overnights in ORF all the time. I think I've overnights there 3 or maybe 4 times in the past couple months? And that is without trying to. When you hold a line you can select it as a preference and try to maximize your time home.