Back when I got hired, I remember 7-year Eagle FOs quit and came to Comair for a "quick" upgrade. Oops.

So, other regionals are hiring. A better question is: How long do you think it'll take those new hires to upgrade? Plenty of senior FOs at those airlines, too. If you're on reserve as an FO at Comair, yeah, I'd probably bail. But as a downgrade, my QoL is much better staying here than leaving, starting over at first-year pay, going back on reserve, not to mention being at the bottom of the list.

So yeah, I'm willing to wait until something better comes along.

 

Chasing a quick upgrade is a just a gamble. I don't think any regional is going to have a quick upgrade for a while as there really isn't any growth out there and that is what fueled those.

 

Correct me if I’m wrong, but Comair just had a downgrade class a couple of weeks ago and now we have a vacancy bid on epic for +12 CRC positions.

 

are you surprised. anything logical is illogical according to comair

 

"Here is your fourth block, Smith. They won't add up to five unless you have all four."

 

For you youngones, this is from Orwell's 1984.

 

Lowlevel

I have a friend that is at Colgan for more than 3 years and is soon to upgrade. I just talked to her and she wants to kill herself or bail cause of how $hity she is being treated. She went there for the upgrade and might not make it cause of the stress and other bs. Good luck to anyone going there.

 

The times of quick upgrades and using the regionals as a stepping stone to move on are long gone. Regional airlines will continue to grow and replace more and more mainline flying. People are not looking at the big picture. There won't be any mainline jobs to move on to, and even if there are some major airlines hiring, there are thousands and thousands of pilots with more time, more type ratings and more experience than somone with his 1000 TPIC at Colgan.

All regional airlines suck, but some of them suck more than others. Bottom feeders like Colgan and Mesa is one of the reason we have such crappy wages. People went to these places because they were chasing the quick upgrade and blowing off and putting up with the BS and low pay. And now look at them, there is no movement, the pay and workrules are still absolutley horrendous, so now they voted in a Union in hopes of getting a fair contract. I personally don't see it happen anytime soon, just look at PNCL. But, there are still thousands of people lined up that want to go fly at Colgan. Even after the crash, all the bad press, they are hiring and getting more airplanes. The gov't, majors or passengers don't care about safety, all they care about is numbers, and if the Passenger can save $1 on a round-trip ticket, they will still get on a Colgan plane.

 

I may have been unclear in my post. What I meant was; how many people are willing to stay an FO at Comair for at least 10 more years, and top out in pay, when they could go out and find other jobs (non-aviation or maybe at a corporate flying job) that pay the same, if not better. And as for the "former captains" of Comair, I am sure they are looking for other better things than a place that made them take a huge pay cut.

I know the argument will be that the economy is bad and there are no jobs out there....let's just say, for sake of argument, that there are jobs out there.

As for Colgan, one could only hope that their certificate is taken away (not anything against the pilots). And Mesa, well, that is just a matter of time until they go away.

I know the captain bid that came out is only for eligible pilots, but the attached seniority list is called "Pilot Seniority List 2/12/10"....it was nice of them to leave off the furloughed pilots like they are not even considered as employees (pilots) anymore

 

You are absolutely, positively 100% correct. Especially 'People are not looking at the big picture'. They think of the regionals as the rental apartment that they trash because they have no plan to stay.