Shuttle or Republic .. they gave me a choice
 

I am in the Shuttle 10/29 class, however today the Shuttle class got an email saying that they need 12 volunteers to go fly under the Republic certificate. Does anyone have an opinion which is a better choice looking only at movement of pilots, future flying expansion/down-sizing, or between airways/ual/dal/frontier flying? I thought Airways was closing/consolidating their PIT base, probably displacing their flying to PHL and CLT.

My understanding is that the most recent/significant growth has been on the RW certificate due to the Frontier operations. PIT seems to be in jeopardy of some downsizing due to the USAir pullout. I don't work there, so I don't know anything first hand.

You can upgrade across certificates so if it were me I would base it on where I wanted to live. As far as which would result in less time on reserve, I have no idea.

Growth only matters for FO's at RAH with respect to holding a line in base. You can upgrade to any certificate as your seniority allows. Growth at RW will affect S5 FO upgrade times the same as RW FO's.

Reserve is probably shorter at RW right now as that is where the immediate growth is, but S5 is getting 175s and more 170s next year. I concur with the above statement, go where you want to live. PHL is extremely junior at RW. Counting the trainee's currently assigned, I'm just above 50% in base for FO's and I hired in on 7/11 this year. PIT/DCA/IND are about the same. Expect 3-4 months on reserve there. DEN is as senior as it gets for FO's, but still only about a 4-6 month wait to bid over there. We do not expect to see a reduction in our PIT flying as a result of the mainline shifts yet.

What hours did you get hired on at?

Official mins are 800/100. I know of several who have been hired to the 170 with less total time. They are pretty firm about the multi though. If you have a pulse and 100 hours of multi, you have a solid shot right now.

You have been given a great oppertunity. Just figure out where you would to be based most and go from there.

I wouldnt be too sure on the firm 100 multi. My instructor got hired with only 23 multi 1100 tt.

That may a rare occurence though.

What is the Junior base for Shuttle..and which one are people getting out of training? How soon could I get Chicago?

IND and CMH are junior. my entire class got IND out of training. some wanted ATL (which is real senior) and got it for november, the second month we could bid. same for ORD.

ORD, CMH, and IND all have several 8/20/07 hire FO's. ATL doesn't and would be the hardest to get.