Originally Posted by AerChungus

I'll bite. I just had this whole argument with myself to leave my regional for a CJO with ABX and I decided to stay at my regional. Here was my thought process:

On the pro-regional side, the regional offered way more flight time because once you're off reserve you can fly 75-95 hours a month, which would probably get a call from a legacy faster. ABX was a bunch of CVG-SMF and then sit for 2 days type stuff. With the pay and bonus structure (and considering the fact that at ABX it would take 3 years to hit 1000 hours to be upgrade eligible), I would make 50k MORE at my regional over a 3 year period. Sure, the top of the payscale at the ACMI is better than my regional, but I'm not really hoping to stay at either long enough for it to matter. At my regional, I get to fly the front side of the clock and I have a good commute while ABX is back side of the clock with a two-leg to CVG. I would love to get hired by a legacy that is different from the mainline my regional flies for now so I feel that I'm marginally more attractive to my dream airline staying put. The cargo market seems to be under a bit of a crunch now and ABX just lost most of their trans-Atlantic flying. Though the LONG TERM stability of ABX is probably better than my regional, I seems that cargo is pretty slow right now while the regionals should keep squeezing as much life out of their dying airframe as their captain numbers allow. Things aren't as good as they could be, but hopefully there are enough lifers, E-3s, flow die-hards, and people who have made oopsies to keep the left seat full enough to accommodate my seniority. I would rather upgrade to captain than go to an LCC due to lack of single-leg commute options at LCCs and desire to cut out intermediate steps and im sure ill have no time flying as much as I want as a regional captain. Furthermore, if I were to do anything really stupid down the line or something economy-crushing were to slow major airline hiring, I could still *hopefully* flow to my mainline eventually. Lastly, my pass riders really loves to nonrev. My parents live 20 minutes from my mainline's major European hub and are going to Italy tomorrow, my girlfriend is going to Australia next week, and my enrolled friend is going to Portugal some time in June.

On the pro-ABX side, ABX has the 767 which is a cool type rating.


Everybody's situation is different, but for me in particular, the ACMI route seemed like a step backwards

Originally Posted by AerChungus

I'll bite. I just had this whole argument with myself to leave my regional for a CJO with ABX and I decided to stay at my regional. Here was my thought process:

On the pro-regional side, the regional offered way more flight time because once you're off reserve you can fly 75-95 hours a month, which would probably get a call from a legacy faster. ABX was a bunch of CVG-SMF and then sit for 2 days type stuff. With the pay and bonus structure (and considering the fact that at ABX it would take 3 years to hit 1000 hours to be upgrade eligible), I would make 50k MORE at my regional over a 3 year period. Sure, the top of the payscale at the ACMI is better than my regional, but I'm not really hoping to stay at either long enough for it to matter. At my regional, I get to fly the front side of the clock and I have a good commute while ABX is back side of the clock with a two-leg to CVG. I would love to get hired by a legacy that is different from the mainline my regional flies for now so I feel that I'm marginally more attractive to my dream airline staying put. The cargo market seems to be under a bit of a crunch now and ABX just lost most of their trans-Atlantic flying. Though the LONG TERM stability of ABX is probably better than my regional, I seems that cargo is pretty slow right now while the regionals should keep squeezing as much life out of their dying airframe as their captain numbers allow. Things aren't as good as they could be, but hopefully there are enough lifers, E-3s, flow die-hards, and people who have made oopsies to keep the left seat full enough to accommodate my seniority. I would rather upgrade to captain than go to an LCC due to lack of single-leg commute options at LCCs and desire to cut out intermediate steps and im sure ill have no time flying as much as I want as a regional captain. Furthermore, if I were to do anything really stupid down the line or something economy-crushing were to slow major airline hiring, I could still *hopefully* flow to my mainline eventually. Lastly, my pass riders really loves to nonrev. My parents live 20 minutes from my mainline's major European hub and are going to Italy tomorrow, my girlfriend is going to Australia next week, and my enrolled friend is going to Portugal some time in June.

On the pro-ABX side, ABX has the 767 which is a cool type rating.


Everybody's situation is different, but for me in particular, the ACMI route seemed like a step backwards

Originally Posted by firefighterplt

It’s way more than just pay.

I’d rather have a solid QOL, great work rules, good travel bennies…than make a little more per hour.

Different strokes…

Originally Posted by firefighterplt

Living in base beats all of the above