Simple and informative piece that sums up what is happening in the regional airline marketplace in pretty good detail.

Mentions the following Companies
Pinnacle
SkyWest
BigSky (Mair)
Express Jet
Republic
ComAir
Colgan
Compaaa
Horizon Frontier (Lynx)
Piedmont
PSA
ASA
US Airways
Delta
Continental
NWA

http://atwonline.com/magazine/articl...articleID=1924

 

Longtime analyst Michael Boyd sees a grim future for the sector. "The [phrase] regional airline is a misnomer. They aren't regional and they aren't airlines," he tells ATW. "These are leasing companies, that's all, and it's a shrinking business." Furthermore, he believes many regionals still are overstocked with 50-seat RJs at a time when the fleet forecast shows there is no new demand for 50-seaters. "Anything with a CRJ or ERJ in front of it is going to have a hard time selling," he says.

The truth is spoken. When I started, regionals were regionals, feeding mainline. I just read the skyw 35 year mag praising themselves, personally it made me sick, its just a shady business model all-around.

Sounds like a great time to invest your 70k. You will get on just long enough to fly for a few years in poverty then get furloughed as the regionals shrink.

 

Lengthy Skyhigh post not needed here. The grim reality is plenty on its own. Any youngsters reading this article should disregard it as "impossible" and go on thinking that everything is fine and that there is a shiny new CRJ in everyone's future.

SkyHigh

 

I am not young, but I will not be blazing a trail to any regional. There was a time when I would do this, but the more I read the more I see it is a cutthroat industry that dangles hopes of a better future out like a carrot to pilots while they swear off a normal life and fair compensation just to get access to a struggle.

Since I am single and do not provide for dependents I still hold out a remote hope of a big upturn in newhire pay at regionals. But the apparent pilot shortage is a shortage of those willing to work for subpar wages, as there are lots of nonworking pilots around, and it will be a chilly day in Somalia before regionals will pay higher wages than they can get away with paying.

There is an element in the human being that requires him or her to have a dream. Regionals have truly tapped into this phenomenon in modern society. Here we have a dream losing traction as the truth settles in to the dreamers. The flow of persons willing to work for a dream is at a serious low.

 

so based on this excess supply of RJ's, when is the regional hiring going to stop?

 

The local university told me that they have double the applications for the flight program than usual for this coming fall. I think that the word is out about the hiring boom at the regionals and people would rather waste mommy and daddy's money on something that sounds funner than Business Administration. So what if they will only make 18K per year. Reality and logic is for dorks.

SkyHigh

 

Yeah, the word was bound to get out.

 

I keep reading how pilots only make 18K per year. Isn't that a little misleading? Sure, you only make that your first year, but aren't there a lot of professions that don't pay that much out of the gate? What does a resident at a hospital make? What does a law clerk for a judge make? I mean, yeah, I think we all wish we made more money. I don't think that anyone is paid what we they are worth - but they are paid what the market will support. That is simple economics. Right now, I think a pilot can make a decent living and there is still some upside. Check out what the median pilot income is.

 

I worked out the numbers on my own as a comparison between flying for a regional on the one hand, and working a typical desk job on the other. It takes about 7 years- disallowing the cost of training even- to break even with the desk job. So, at least for seven years you cannot argue it's profitable to fly. There are many additional factors that stack up against applying to regionals which make the proposition less appealing. My analysis only looked at the money. If you have a crazy zeal for flying it may still be worth it, but from what I can tell very few make the kind of bucks we associate with the image of the succcessful pilot.

I am interested in flying for a living and I love airplanes, designing aircraft systems is my desk job after all; but I will have to practically fall off the earth before my outlook changes enough to get serious about applying to a regional. I have a pretty good job. For those who do not have such a job already or hate their present job, I would say what do you have to lose? Apply to the regionals; but be warned that thin hard times are ahead and at best you are going to break even.

 

A little hole in your reasoning, residents don't REPLACE doctors, law clerks don't replace and a law clerk does not replace a judge. That heavy jet might not be waiting for you at 1000 Turbine PIC anymore. My advice, choose a good regional cause that's might be where you are going to stay for a while.