ASA, CHQ or AWAC, career places or no?
 

Yes or no?
And why please.
thanks

IMO I think it depends on what you want to do with flying. If your content flying domestic doing some hopping around different cities and you don't care if you have to wait 10-12yrs to close in on 100k than go for it. I also think it depends on age. I am 21, I could go to AWAC or any of the others and sit there for maybe ten years and then what? I'll be 31 with another 25+ yrs to retirement. So my collective goal is to fly wide body intl, so for me I would rather do a short stint with a commuter then get on with somebody like CAL where I could hopefully spend a career and maybe if I am real lucky have some retirement when I am done. However, I do think these companies are okay, I do not work for any of them but I do know some folks that work there and from what I hear AWAC is one of the better more stable ones. Hope this sheds some light on your question. Good luck

Historically, AWAC, Skywest, horizon, COMAIR, and even ASA (probably a couple smaller ones too) could have been considered career destinations; some folks even like to pretend they still are.

The fundamental problem with most regionals is that they don't sell their own tickets, and only "lease" their market share from a major partner. You are likely to suffer these effects during a regional career:

Major moves your company to a new city (on the opposite coast).

Major fires your company (layoffs, downgrades)

When you get really senior and comfy (and paid a vaguely livable wage) you company will immediately find itself too "mature" to compete against younger regionals for the flying contracts. You will have to give huge concessions (putting your family back on foodstamps AGAIN) and endure more layoffs and downgrades, possibly in Ch.11.

Some of these bad things can happen at a major too, but at least you can see it coming, have more control of your own destiny, and are less likely to get geographically displaced.

SKW has somehow avoided most of these hassles so far. I'm not sure how, but maybe because they are pretty entrenched in their neck of the woods. Horizon has done OK, BUT they are owned by AK, and we all know what their current game plan is...

ok,thanks
what about the fact that awac "owns " 14% of us airways?
and btw what is AK plan?

You're right, AWAC should enjoy more stability since most or all of their flying is USA.

AK is on a MAJOR cost cutting crusade...

CAL sold off XJet and DAL sold ASA (and probably COMAIR eventually) during similar circumstances. QX might find itself sold off to raise cash, then immediately competing against Mesa for it's own routes.

AWAC owning 14% of usair (I think it's technically 13%) doesn't mean squat. It helped them get their 50 seaters placed but as for further growth it will go to the lowest bidder. AWAC will never be the lowest bidder.

If you come to AWAC you most likely will be on reserve a very long time (6+ months for now) because they will now just hire for attrition, which has come to a complete standstill.

I HIGHLY doubt AK would sell off QX unless they were in bankruptcy and it was purely a survival issue. QX has made money for AK and as far as I can tell has been a very healthy relationship. One advantage Horizon has over other regionals is that they are owned by their parent company so it would take a sell off to lose that flying (which I think is very doubtful). Horizon also flies their own colors / name and many of their tickets are sold through horizon - ask anyone in the northwest who Horizon Air is and they know right away, they know about horizon deals and they buy horizon tickets. Ask the average joe who Air Wisconsin is or Pinnacle etc. and chances are they won't have a clue. That being said horizon does do contract work for Frontier who could decide to renegotiate that contract which would lead to problems for horizon pilots. Upgrades are slow anyplace that pay is livable and the company is somewhat stable. Hopefully the industry will turn around and change that someday though.

Now there's a statement many of us never thought we'd see! Hope it's true.

Well ok that does sound kind of silly...

But it's not really USAir anymore; hopefully cactus can put the old airways to rest.

Why would they want to do that? America West is the one losing its name...US Airways will continue to operate. Cactus should lose its call sign sometime in 2007.