Mountain Air Cargo

Out and back day trips out of Miami with a guaranteed interview at FedEx.

 

You are not to old to make this change, by the time you are ready to transition to the regionals you would still have about 25 more years to go, which is a damn good career.
I live in FL as well, in Port Saint Lucie, i commute to Chicago O'Hare, mainly using AA or Spirit out of FLL or AA from PBI.
When i was in the same situation i decided to go with SkyWest Airlines, mainly due to the fact that all my friends where there and they were happy and the fact that my college had a path to OO with an on campus recruiter.
Had i been diligent i would probably have gone with Envoy, since my end goal is AA out MIA. Hopefully i can reach that goal from OO. Only time will tell.
If you want to stay in FL, you can either go with Envoy, Republic och Silver. Envoy and Republic are very senior in FL and Silvers compensation is not the greatest.
You still have other options that are close by, SkyWest and Endeavor have Atlanta bases, or you can commute to Charlotte, Raleigh or Greensboro.
I love being based in Chicago and have found the commute to be much less stressful than anticipated. I spent one year in Detroit and getting there from Florida was extremely hard since i had to 2-leg it through Atlanta. And Atlanta i hell on earth on a good day, so when you are trying to get to work, it's worse...

Good luck with your endeavors.

 

A relatively recent change and not sure how long it will stay this way, but new hires are currently getting MIA at Republic.

 

I am not locked into anything at the moment, long term, I think airlines are the better play.

 

Thank you for taking the time to reply, your insight was very beneficial. I am looking into either Envoy, Republic, or Silver as I agree, my best shots to stay local. Appreciate the insight!

 

I wouldn't say it's always the number one thing, many folks commute (including me, for many years). It's not the end of the world IF you carefully select a reasonable commute and consider all the factors in play.

That said, avoid it if you can. I was willing to do it while building experience, but my ultimate goal was to drive to work at my career-destination job. IMO, that's more important than shorter-term regional considerations.

 

Just be cautious with Envoy. While we do have a base in Miami, it is very senior and very small. I wouldn't come here "just" for Miami as it may take you a few years to find a steady slot at that base. However, if your goal may be to get to AA, the flow is nice although even that is beginning to show signs of age as AA will be hiring far more off the streets than from their wholly owned airlines.

I have heard the easiest commute for a Miami based Envoy pilot is LGA, so assuming you got on the 145 that would be where I would plan to be for the forceable future at Envoy. Best of luck to you.

 

You don't even have your commercial yet. You are years away from looking into which regional may be best for you. The only thing that is certain about this industry is that it changes all the time. By the time you're ready to start applying for regionals, the landscape will look completely different than what it does now. You're a pilot, you wanna plan ahead; that's understandable. But honestly, you're way too early to even give this topic a thought.

 

I am also in aviation as a second career. I live in Florida as well, so I have been looking for an end game legacy or ULCC to end up with decent seniority. Frontier is poised to grow double its current size, with bases in Orlando and Miami. It also has significant operations out of Tampa which is a possible future domicile. Acquiring hiring mins to these major carriers from any regional and then getting your apps out should be your target for settling back in to Florida with less commuting in the long run.

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Caution. "Planned" growth is not a sure thing. Airliner orders can almost always be cancelled with little penalty, and they often are.

Retirements are far more reliable.

Caution. Plenty of major pilots have been holding their breath for years for certain bases to open. An actual base that you know you can drive/commute to should be the goal. If your hometown does become a base, even better.