Regional Airlines Quality of Life
 

Hey Guys,

I know most of you on this forum work at various regionals across the US. Out of curiousity, I would like to know which Regional Airlines(from a personal point of view) offer the best balance for the following(in the order given) for a new hire F/O :

1. Quality of Life- a sample montly roster would be appreciated(e.g 5 on/3off etc). Although I know this would vary with line bidding and seniority, an average roster schedule would suffice.
2. Average time for upgrade(e.g 1, 2 or 3+ yrs)
3. Salary- which regionals pay the best hourly rates especially after 1 year of service.
4. Bases on the East Coast-eg. BOS, JFK, LGA, EWR, and other bases in say in DC, Virginia and the New England Area. Of course, choice of base would be an asset.

I look forward to your replies.

Thanks guys

Regards

V1_Rotate

Not to be rude, but just use the search function, this was broken down quite articulately recently............

In these forums? :eek:

First off people always say being a new hire is a horrible life. It's been great for me. I'm on reserve and live 10 minutes from the airport. I go running or swimming during the day and if the phone rings I go in. I tell the schedulers the days I'd like to have off and I've always gotten them. IE my family throws a big 4th of July party every year so I asked to have my days off moved around and sure enough I have the 4th-7th off.

All I ever had were people in training who had worked a little before and telling me things like "you say that now but wait till you get there I promise you you'll hate it and change your mind". They were full of crap about it all.

My company is Chautauqua which is part of the Republic Holdings Group. Money is kinda tight but not as bad as everyone makes it out to be. I did manage to cut my spending by just getting rid of my vehicle ect. Once I move back to my home area I'll just pick up one then. I still managed to put about $1200 in savings. I don't know if I'll be able to do that this next month or any of the followings so I advise that if you find yourself with a few bucks left over to go ahead and put them away. One rainy day it will be nice to fall back on :)

As far as days on/off go I'm 5 on with 2 off then every other week I have 3-4 days off. My reserve times are from 3am-3pm. I've never been called at 3am. usually the earliest is 4:30 for a 6am show. I'll go back to sleep for another 45min or so then get up and drive in. Not a bad deal really.

I'm at TSA...qol sucked when I was commuting and when I was on reserve. Now I live in domicile, and have a line, so no complaints. I've been here less then a year, and a normal month is 85-95 hours, with 100 plus billed. I can get 13 days off, sometimes more, unless I want to make a little extra money, then I can pick up some open time usually pretty easily. My mid year pay should be at 12.5, so I should make right at 25000 for my first year. Not great, but liveable.

Single 20 something = Pretty descent QOL
Married= ok QOL if wife works too.
Married + Kids = shi**y QOL, your poor and will hate life being away from your family and not making any money doing it. Period. There are guys on here who will argue it, but they are full of it, anyone who is gone 5 days and only home 2 making less than 1K every two weeks is lying to them-selfs.

I would have to agree with this! I'm in the married+Kids group and the QQL is poor as far as being away from my family so much and having to commute to the west coast from the midwest. I love the flying, the plane I'm in, and the people here but the rest bites! Once I get a chance to transfer back to ORD life will be looking much better!

if you can get based in a city you want to live in or with in driving distance your qol of life will be good with pretty much any airline you go to. assuming your not talking about some of the really abusive regionals.

I have great news for you...most regional jobs are in the midwest and eastern US, but most pilots want to live in the west. You will have your choice of a variety of companies and bases. And whichever base you select will probably provide great seniority (if you avoid a select few regionals).

Also since you actually like EWR, you should start networking immediately to get a recomendation at CAL when the time comes (you will need 1000 hours at the regional first).

Thanks for your feedback.

Keep 'em comin' guys.

regards

V1_ROTATE

V1_ROTATE I also like your questions, only thing I'd change is the bases, I'd rather have either ORD or LGA, then the southeast, like ATL/MCO/BNA....etc....

For a Company like ASA, are the chances pretty good that you will be located in ATL? Or for Northwest Airlink in MEM? I know people can't be too picky, but QOL is very important to me and living in the south is equally important, so when the time comes, hopefully ASA will be available.

ASA's only crew base is ATL...LAX closed

Well, Eagle is very good for a regional. EMB only bases at LGA and BOS, and you can confirm your domicile prior to class. Long upgrade is the bummer here, though some think it will come down to 3-5 years for those hired today. Pay and bennies are pretty standard, operationally it's top tier for a regional but still has some issues. Live in base as a lineholder and you'll enjoy it as long as quick PIC isn't your primary goal.

Ill second that. If you can live in base then life is good!

just better hope they can find people to staff the atr ops in sju or the whole pick your base thing will end real fast since they cant get anyone to go there