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.