Regional for career!
 

I know I'm going to get backlash here but my question is if one was to make a career at the regional and NOT advance to a major, what airline would it be? Or would it be better to go the corporate route? Thanks in advance!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Skywest won't be bad

Or why not go to one of the AA wholly owned? You can make it a career there or flow when your number comes up... either way you can choose at the time.

Where do you want to live?

Do you think they'll be a regional that keeps its domicile open there long enough for you to make to retirement?

SkyWest has open and closed MKE, ATL, DFW, SMF, MRY, SBP, SBA, SAN, YUM, and a few others over the past couple decades. SAN just re-opened though but a bunch of lifers spent years commuting.

Look at ASA. Decades in ATL and that's coming to an end.

SkyWest is at least diversified in it's flying. DL, UA, AA, and AK. As opposed to a company with all of it's eggs in one basket. Air Wisconsin has been doing the airline shuffle the past 12 years.

Your choices are pretty much.
wholly owned
non-union
RAH
Bottom feeder
Boutique company that won't around more than 5 years from now.

Long-Term
 

Give consideration to what regionals you think might survive consolidation. Also, look at companies that are diversified versus reliant on one major. YMMV.

I'm married and whoever I get hired with is where we'll go so I don't have to commute. Just seeing which regional would be suited for the long run. I guess like you guys mentioned already what base will I be able to safely plant down for 15-20 years? I guess a few of you said Skywest? Is it worth not being in union? How safe long term is that? WO AA's, best long term bases? Thanks for your guys input.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

15 years ago ACA was the place to be. 10 years ago Comair was the cream of the crop. Are you seeing a pattern here?

Got ya!!!! Well I guess flying corporate is a better career choice than any regional? Forgive me for my ignorance!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

PSA, Piedmont and Envoy... that way when you get some sense and flow to American Airlines you can stay in the base you're already in and enjoy more $ and the 16% 401k direct contributions.

Bunch of lifers at OO.

Not a bad place to stay. Unless you live in SLC. Then you're commuting for awhile.

Corporate flight departments get closed or cut back all the time(ask me how I know)...:confused:

Regional and career do not willingly go together.

So I guess if it's not a major airline it's not a career?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Sounds like a dead end! Thanks!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

SKW has continued to grow through all of that. SKW pay, QOL, and culture are decent, definitely near the top but probably not at the top in all categories. Pay is probably the best, there are a lot of soft-pays and bonuses, after five years you can count on about hourly rate x 1300 for annual pay.

Also SKW as an independent has some advantages, owns some gates, owns lots of airplanes, and is so big that UAL and probably DL could not live without them right now (would take years to transition to another solution). Nobody, including mainline, could acquire hundreds of 70-seat RJ's to replace SKW because they don't exist! Any of the big-three which were to fire SKW would see their RJ's flying for other majors as quick as they could get through ROW. The big-three are generally OK with that because SKW has proven to be a fairly reliable partner with good economy of scale over the long-term. Right now is not a good time to take a chance on a bottom feeder to save a few pennies...customer service is where it's at when the economy is humming along, not penny-pinching.

All that said...there is serious risk that the entire regional model will be in jeopardy in a few years if they run out of FO's. If the legacies start hiring CFIs (or even 1000 hour RJ FO's on a wholesale basis), it will be game-over for the regional industry as we know it today. Even in that case you probably have a job at SKW, but it might be as an FO-for-life. Silver lining, there's a good chance that in order to retain FO's, they would just pay everybody CA rates after five years, regardless of which seat your seniority holds.

My recommendation would be to go to a major, but that will probably become self-evident in 3-5 years.

Why would someone *want* to do that, especially in the current state of the industry?

The reason is because I got into flying as a hobby years ago and failed my private and instrument check rides as I wasn't aware of the repercussion of failing. So I doubt I'll be able to get into a major let alone a regional?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Having managed expectations is one thing, but in the current (and likely future) state of the industry it just doesn't make any sense to plan on staying at a regional for an entire career.

I doubt that two failed checkrides is going to provide a substantial barrier to getting employed at any of the mainline/national/LCC carriers in the future. Even if it was, with no-additional-interview flows at the three AA-owned regionals, I don't see why someone with that "problem" wouldn't go work at PDT, PSA, or ENY as an insurance policy.

Will you have to talk about checkride failures in future job interviews? Yes.

Will those busts be lifetime barriers to moving past the regionals? Very likely not barring a substantial change to things.

Plenty of people have moved to majors with failed checkrides. Just don't try to hide it. Own it, learn from it, move on. You'll be fine.

Until your list gets too senior-and you start getting underbid.

Someone put it well:

"Once a regional becomes a decent place to work, too many people stick around. When that happens, you will be too expensive-and you will be shut down."

This is the first law of regional aviation. It applies to all regionals-and it always will.

The American Airline Wholly Owned regionals are your answer. You can have less than 3 checkride failures and be hired on at Piedmont without much turmoil. More than 3 and your package may to be sent up for review for a decision from the chief pilots office.

Well there is light at the end of the tunnel!!! Here I was kicking myself in the butt the past couple years thinking there was no hope. Thanks for the input!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I'm contemplating the same thing. 50/50 on making it a career and would move to the majors if the opportunity was available. I have an ATP and a lucrative business that I'd be walking away from or cutting way back to help make ends meet. 49 years old and don't have a 4 year degree, Do have a 2 year AS in aviation. I'm not sure if the degree is as critical as it used to be in today's environment.

Any thoughts?

If both checkrides were in the context of private pilot recreational flying (vice a formal career-training program), the failures will be non-events. The GA part 91 training and evaluation system is pretty haphazard and inconsistent, and everybody knows it.

Essentially no impact on getting hired at a regional. Likely minimal impact on getting hired at a major over the next ten+ years. Might not get called as quickly, but you'll get called eventually.

Try hard not to fail any more, you don't want a trend.

Degree is absolutely not required at the regional level. Go to one of the AA WOs. Once you get hired you just wait your time and flow to AA.

Regional industry as we know it might not exist in ten years. I wouldn't plan on getting too comfortable. But as I said before, I expect there will be major airline jobs for most all experienced professional pilots by then.