Regional Advice
 

I've been lurking (and reading) here for a while, coming up on about a 1000 hours and working on my ratings. I'm a little later in life. If there's anything I've learned from reading APC, Regionals change a lot in fortunes, schedules, etc....it's a dynamic business.

I won't go down the "which regional" rabbit hole, but i would like some advice on what's the latest for a guy that would love to have a Dallas domicile. Doesn't need to happen right off the bat, but it needs to be a legit option within a year or so. I'm looking for quality of organization (1), best training/experience (2), best health/401K benefits (3), in an airline that will likely have work in Dallas long term. I want something i can stay at for several years to set myself up for the future, but at the same time be a good company worth being employed by if another downturn hits. I know that's a lot to ask though, but would appreciate your take.

Republic guy here. If you want DFW, go to Skywest.

Thank you, appreciate it. A close friend at SWA recommended Skywest, but with the caveat that he never worked for a regional. He just said the skywest guys they get seem fully spun up and generally liked their time there. Grain of salt though. So..thank you, great to hear it from a recent/relevant source.

Not to derail...but i would think Republic would be a good choice for IAH? thanks again.

YX is a great airline and I love working here, but our IAH base is fairly small. You could hold it, but holding a line there would take ages. Right now there's a huge wait to get hired here and we're being very selective. Expressjet is probably better if you want IAH. Don't fall for the Mesa trap.

Although Mesa will probably get you hours the quickest, and upgrade too. Ejet was staffed mostly by young guys looking to get out asap when I was there. The lifers are on the CRJ.

Thank you guys for the input so far. One of the things that's been a challenge is what was a strong organization 3 years ago is now potentially a dud. And quite Frankly, the culture seems flat out toxic at some.

One of the common threads is "stay away from Mesa." Since i don't work there and have not a had a chance to dig into their financials (other than debt, market cap, revenue and liquidity)...is the Mesa thing solely labor/operations related or is it history of corporate stability? Or both. Thanks again.

Envoy. Has it's issues, but if you want Dallas and Stable (not to mention flow) hard to argue against that.

If you have dependents, the wholly owned non-rev benefits are SUPERB. You have same status as AA mainline employees and pecking order is based on time of checkin, not seniority, so they are usable immediately and the options ex-DFW are great. Non wholly owned carriers are much MUCH lower priority for boarding.

Thank you for that, really appreciate it. I do have dependents and the travel benefits would be a good option for me. I'm a little later in life, so domicile and quality of organization are probably going to outweigh most things compared to early in life (military and oil&gas). I'm flexible, but i'm not the guy anymore that can go work in West Africa for a month at a time with no notice.

why Skywest and not Envoy

Meh. If you fly for OO in Dallas you will have benefits with AA, UA, and DL, not that flight benefits should even be in the conversation when choosing who to work for. Not to mention better pay/benefits. Flow is the carrot keeping the pay abysmally low at Envoy. Don't fall for it.

This is exactly why you should go to Skywest and not Envoy...

Envoy, after their pay raise comes through. DFW area is their headquarters (along with AA) so they won’t be going anywhere long term.

Seems like both have their strengths. I agree, AA's probably not going anywhere as far as DFW goes. From looking at Skywest's last five quarterly reports though, that's a pretty solid balance sheet too compared to it's peers. Still...domiciles and come an go.

Between the two, any perceived strengths/differences in quality of training? Early likely hood of getting solid flying time? Thanks again guys.

I think you mean if

My take on this is that you are focusing on all of the wrong things. Unless you are hitting age 65 within the next decade you should really only be concerned about two things:

living in base (above all else)
flying as much as possible - safely of course

You need to be looking to set yourself up for beyond the regionals before you even step foot into the training center on day 1 of indoc. Things like quality of organization, business ethics, 401k benefits, and long term stability are all trash and have no relevance at the regional level. Nobody cares and most of those organizations behave like runaway trains on a good day.

There will be a time to focus on those things that you listed but now is not that time. The best advice is to live in base and DO NOT GET COMFORTABLE...EVER!

Now apply, get an offer, and get out there and fly son!

It will be both a miracle and some time before any pay raise occurs.

Solid and blunt...I like it! Makes sense for sure. I'm a second career guy, so i'm probably a little overly concerned about the financials. I work oil and gas and we have our share of "creative financial engineering" that definitely leaves a bad taste. And thanks for the comment on career length....I'm not young (45), so I am a little ways off from mandatory retirement. From reading here and talking to some friends at majors, seems like FO at a LCC is definitely achievable in my early 50's. Hope so, want to stay humble and grind it out till I get there. Thanks again for input.

I second this being a second career guy myself (prior military without the flying background).

Pick a regional where you will live in best (QOL improvement is huge over commuting), one where you will fly, one and where upgrade is quick.

Long term stability doesn’t really exist in the regional world because flying will come and go same with bases. In your case, I would go Envoy for that DFW base.

I agree; living in base is like gold and having the flow is like (indirect mental insurance).commuting and all the BS intagibles that go along with it is what will take time off your life.

Thanks for the advice, really appreciate it. I'm an ex-military guy as well, but for only 4 years out of high school. Then went to college on the GI bill. Don't know if veteran status matters at all in hiring, but i guess it can't hurt. Thanks again.

Sorry to bump an old thread but I am in an almost identical position to the OP with the only exception being that I’m in my early 20’s. I live in DFW but have family in ORD (both junior bases at ENY and SKW). I’d love to stay in Texas long term at either AA, SWA, or UAL and don’t really have a preference for which one I end up at. My concern with ENY is that flow time seems to only be increasing and may be greater than the time it would take me to get hired somewhere other than AA. On the flip side of that, even a 10 year flow to AA would mean a 30+ year career for someone my age. To sum things up, I wanted to get y’alls opinion on both paths. Thanks!

My 2 cents.
First, don’t confine yourself to these two. I think XJT would be an option as well. Go where you can build hours.
Second, if you have no current social attachments, move to ORD or NYC. You’re young, supposed be poor. Learn to find the cheap eats such as 2 Bros Pizza ($1.50/slice) in NYC and the happy hours for cheap drinks.
Learn to fly out of these bases. A regional should not just be checking a box, it should be about learning. Deicing. Hand flying the Expressway Visual 31 in gusty winds without the benefit of RNAV. Dealing with the cluster $$&? of LGA during a melt down. What it’s like to operate out of ORD.

Sounds like excellent advice.

I agree. Flying out of DFW is nothing like flying out of ORD and NE airports. It’s valuable experience for sure. Would I base which regional on that alone, no, but it is an interesting side benefit.

Boutique Air might be worth a look. 60k and DFW

But then what? In reality he’s gonna have to be at a regional sooner or later if he wants SWA or AA. Might as well get in the door and get some seniority. Plus if your Hustlin there’s no reason you can’t make that kind of money at SkyWest. My first year at 36/hr I made 64,000 and my second year I was on track to over 80,000 as an FO at 41.53.

All good points, just throwing it out there as an option. I’d personally do the regional rout, but BTQ does work for a lot of guys.

There good but there guys seem to
End up at regionals anyway. So might as well just skip over that stepping stone...

^Agreed^ ...121 multi-jet time > 135 SE prop time...just saying. App scores app scores app scores.

Boutique looks like I solid option for sure... but I’d love to skip that extra step if possible. My first choice would be going straight to a regional, but I’ve got to bridge the gap from 1000 hours to 1500. I own an airplane, but burning holes out of pocket for 500 hours doesn’t seem like an wise move with the current cost of av gas and engine overhaul hours. 😳

Botique is just fine for that. But mostly a waste of career progression after 1500 hours (unless you plan to stay there for your career).

The majors only hire one kind of single engine pilot: fighter pilots.

Go to Botique. Get 500 hours and bounce for a regional. I assume they don’t have a training contract or bonus? If so, just don’t use the bonus

Similar situation here, but it's ~100 hours. I could not afford to close a 500 hrs gap. BTQ, Plansense, Ameriflight, etc were my fallback plans to close the gap, but I made the decision at about 150 hrs to go to just fly it. Thought I would be closer by now. Turns out, working one of those "M-F 9-5" deskjobs (which somehow always turns in to 50-60 hrs a week) makes it hard to find TIME to fly those hours.

Man, just find a way to get those last 500 hours. Careful about going 134, most have a training contract and will require your regional bonus to pay the 135 operator back.