Your right some dont.

 

Unless you're going from Mesa to Skywest, lateral moves do not work. Same thing just loss of 6 to 16 months of seniority, don't be fooled by upgrades. If you have more than a few months seniority, you'd be crazy to move, you're just going to have to make that up anyways. Mesaba is the place to be right now because they're the only ones hiring.

 

There's supposedly a bit of a gentleman's agreement with the Chief Pilot's and the furloughees. At least this is what the Chief Pilot told me in my furlough phone call before I got furloughed. He told me explicitly, "If you have to resign your seniority number to get another job, do what you have to do... I have a shredder behind my desk that will be shredding all resignation letters and you will be recalled in order of seniority." Basically, he was saying go ahead and resign but we're going to turn our head and pretend it didn't happen.

So, if you believe a chief pilot, you can have your cake and eat it too. If you're a Nov. 5th furlough, I would assume you've received that phone call by now. I received my call about 3 weeks before Oct. 5th.

FWIW, I put my application in at Mesaba and they sent an email about a week later stating they had plenty more qualified applicants than me.

 

I would be cautious on believing anything the chief pilot at Comair tells you...especially a "gentleman's agreement"

 

Well my buddy who did exactly that has QUIT on his line. So dont count on it.

That would defiantly be the best thing if you were going to be furloughed though.

 

Another company can require you to give up your seniority number if you accept employment. However, even the most junior furloughed Comair pilot still has his seniority number if the company is sold or merged.

 

He still has his seniority number but will absolutely be merged below any active mesaba or compass pilot.

 

I'm just the messenger and only brought it up because the discussion of this thread deals exactly with this topic.

The furlough situation at Comair is crappy all around, no doubt. I'll be the first to tell you to be skeptical of going to ANY regional at this time... including Mesaba. In fact, aviation is probably on the back burner for me until/if I get recalled by Comair. A majority of the furloughees I spoke with before leaving felt the same way. The time, the pay, the training... it's just not worth it in these uncertain times.

The only good news is: Comair was projecting to hire 400 pilots by the end of 2008 in June. It's October and look how quickly things can change in this industry... hopefully for the better.

 

Ok, here ya go:

12 more 900's total
5 new ones and the 7 that PNCL has from Freedom in Feb. '09
3 Saab's to be placed in ATL

...Let's see how close we are in the very near future. Don't ask for sources as you know that's not an option. A lot of folks know this now so it's not earthshattering but I guess the first time on this site.

 

It makes sense to furlough from one of your wholly owned so your other wholly owned can grow. After promising your first wholly owned that they would receive the planes. Delta management at its best.