Upgrade time is not the biggest negative...the junior upgrade right now is just over three years. That is not at all out of line with the rest of the regional industry, despite what folks are currently seeing right now at RAH and Skywest.

In my opinion the biggest negative is lack of a long-term strategy for growth. With the 146 AWAC had a niche; flying safely in and out of Aspen and other mountain towns, up to 100 folks at a time, for decades. Now we're just another 50 seat RJ operator for a mainline partner that has far too many 50 seat RJs and who can't wait to get rid of our contract in 8 years. Right now, we have nothing to define our operation except our history and only fly to one city in the state that shares our name.

Upper management is set to unveil their new long-term strategic plan in the coming weeks...I sure hope there's some optimistic stuff in there.

 

WEll that should be interesting to see what their "long term " plan is , if there is such a thing in the airline industry I will be going to ATL to meet with them at the Career Fair/Pre-screening and see what they have to say. I did submit my resume last week and havent gotten a call, howeve rI ehar it does take some time, and everyone i ve talked to reccomends going to the Fair and hand delivering my resume as well as putting a name with a face!

 

Not really upgrade time, but more stagnation. The top 1/4 to 1/3 of the pilot group has NO INTENTION of leaving and ending their career at AWAC. That means not as many upgrades.

Upgrade time is currently around 3 1/2 years, HOWEVER it will most likely INCREASE. It only got to 3 because of the HUGE attrition that happened in 2005 - almost 25% of the entire pilot group left. Think about that for a second - 1/4 of the pilot group leaves and upgrades "dropped" to 3 years...with attrition of 8 captains per month (what it's been averaging this year) you're looking at an educated guess of 50 months to upgrade if hired on currently - and that's if they upgrade people when captains leave. So far this year alone about 30 captains have left and there have been ZERO upgrades in their place.

AWAC is a good company but zero growth in the current environment doesn't bode well. If you can't get on at skywest, pinnacle, or republic (three companies that I feel are well positioned for future growth) I wouldn't blink an eye at coming here - until those companies call you .

 

Fosters, thanks a lot for the info, I really want to come there to AWAC, we will see what goes down in ATL!

 

Is anyone on here planning on attending the Job Fair/Seminar in ATL on May 19th???

 

Air Inc is around $175 to get in right? Why would you need to spend the money if you can line up an interview without going

 

They hire a considerable amount of folks, probably 50%, below the posted mins, with a walk-in. However, they certainly prefer 750/50, because at this place, upgrades are one year, if not less.

 

I'm going. I don't want to spend the money, but it seems the best way.

 

cbire880...who do you work for currently??? Maybe I will see you in ATL, I think it will be beneficial. What companies are you interested in??

 

I currently have a "real job" flying a desk. I used to fly a King Air 200 under part 135 until the company went under about 2.5 years ago. I've been instructing on the side since then. We'll see if I'm hosed without a current fulltime flying job and a bunch of hours in the last 6 monhts.