Vacations?
 

Hello merry X-mas to everyone!

Im still a student but i got a question for the Regional Airline Pilots around here... what is the average vacations that you guys can get in a year? is it very different between the airlines? can i take... lets say a 3 week off in July? or something like that?

Thanks! and merry x-mas again!

Three weeks off in July? That's rich. You're going to be hard-pressed to get more than a week off at a time unless you don't want to fly, and you're at an airline that's well staffed.

3 weeks? No, I don't think so. Maybe 3 weeks once in a year. And not consecutive weeks. Or days for that matter. Three weeks off if you combine all the days together.

That would require a prayer and a miracle. Hell, ramp rats have a hard time getting one full week without shift trades so I know it's impossible for you guys

At ExpressJet its common to get about 19 days off of one week of vacation. Of course this assumes you are a line holder. Also, usually you will only get paid your minimum monthly guarantee (75hrs) during a vacation month.

So to answer your question, it depends on what regional you are talking about. Many you wont be able to and a few you will.

You could easily get it on the annual bid at SKW. Basically you can bid as much vacation as you like, and three consecutive weeks should be doable if you don't overlap high-seniority holidays...but when the date arrives, it's up to you to ensure you have enough combined vacation time and personal time to pay for it. You would probably have to be at the two year point to have accumulated that much vacation (and not have called in sick a lot).

Actually this is the way I prefer to do it. I just bid days off for most events in the US, and then every couple of years I take a big chunk of actual vacation and go overseas.