WHAT?!?!? you are saying pilot wages and benefits are not awesome?? Say its not so.....

For the most part PDX/SEA will become the most senior bases in the SkyWest system (at least for captains). Estimated that a captain will need at least 10-15 years to hold a line. Dont get me wrong this does suck that AAG has opened the door for horizon to be pushed out or even sold, but on the other side this is just business and SkyWest is in the position to make money. Don't get mad at SkyWest for accepting a contract put out by AAG, look at your own management first. How is SkyWest bringing down the industry? What if the old rumors that SkyWest does buys horizon for those rumored Q400s and maybe gets Skywest to integrate pilot lists.. who knows but Skywest pilots are not the fault of the demise of Horizon. Remember we are "NON UNION" so with all the bashing that we have no contract or no say, yet we are somehow at fault for the possible demise of horizon?

 

That may very well be true, but our love child is one ugly looking paycheck

 

BFD.... and thanks for nothing, they should have just left SAN open!!!!!!

 

The most Jr captain at QX is almost 11 years, don't pull that longevity crap. Horizon has and does continue to make money, despite our pay rates and benfits. So that argument is crap as well. As long as you and every person at skywest decides that you will continue to accept sub par wages, YOU ARE AT FAULT. I know you think its part of the game, but it is the livelihood of 3000 people at stake and that is at just this company. Every time you go to sleep, remember that it is because you would not stand up for what is right in this industry, people that would stand up lost their jobs. You can make more flying a twin cessna, at a profitable company, and make more then a emb-120 captain does at skywest. It really doesn't matter what I say, YOU will never get it, because that is who you are.

 

You have every right to feel slighted and wronged. What has happened to the pilot group at QX is not fair or just. We each chose a company based on personal circumstances and hope that it will be stable and good for our future. The pilots that will be flying these routes are doing the job their company is telling them to do. None of them were making the deals or handling the negotiations for this flying. That doesn't make the way you feel any less valid, but I fear you are placing your anger towards the wrong group of people.

This business exists to make companies money. The companies are the ones pulling the strings and we as pilots are just trying to do our jobs professionally. I have been fired from a job for refusing to take a 40% pay cut after another pilot came in and said he would do it for 50% less. I was angry with this pilot because of his underhandedness. The pilots at OO are not the ones who made this deal, the company is.

This forum is a breeding ground for hate and anger. Until we can stop placing blame on each other and start focusing our energies on positive business strategies to help one another, this forum will be a wasted space of insults and hostility

 

I am not moving to one of these bases and I feel very bad for the Horizon crews and other employees. This deal sucks. That being said I feel I have to make this point lest we be blinded by our anger. Every single horizon transplant I have flown with at SKW tells me they make more here than they did at Horizon. The dollar per hour wage is only one part of compensation. When you add in work rules, bid period differences and bonus our compensation packages are at the least very similar. From what I am told by people who have been there SKW is actually better. What AAG wants is for Horizon to blame SKW. It really is all about AAG. Lets direct the anger where is belongs.

 

You can't use being "NON UNION" as a get-of-jail-free card and say you have no control over the fact that industry managment is using Skywest to single handedly eradicate union labor from the regional industry. You have CHOSEN to be non union. And you CONTINUE to choose to be non union. You can change it any time you want. Quit hiding behind the "we are non union and therefore have no control" blanket.

Being "excited" about your new opportunities in PDX/SEA is symptomatic of all that is wrong with the regional industry. Sure it's great for you that you don't have to commute anymore, but that windfall was DIRECTLY at someone else's expense. Someone who has been putting in their dues in the business for a LONG time in the case of Horizon. Someone who has ponied up the Union money, and stood up in the face of a nasty contract dispute and said "my services are worth more than the paycut you want to give me". For that, they are punished, airplanes are parked, and they watch you come in and gleefully do their exact same job in their airplanes for around $20 less an hour. It's classless to come on here and gloat.

Sadly, what would really change the industry is to just make all regional contracts at risk. Let's see how those 50's and 70's do at $120/barrel oil. Unfortunately, management realizes what they have in those jets. A weapon. A HUGE weapon that they are using to try to break the back of union labor in the airline industry.

 

Really? Because according to Horizon management, the ONLY reason those airplanes went away was being Horizon pilots were too greedy and unwilling to fly it cheaply enough to continue. Enter Skywest.

 

Yeah, but you get those better working conditions by letting your management give you the same treatment as other pilot groups have paid their union dues to negotiate. You let other groups do the heavy lifting, and then you just ride those coat tails. Sorry, but those of us that pay our 2% are never going to see it any differently unless/until you get an industry LEADING contract.

 

Weren't these once Horizon bases? I'd hate to think that Skywest would undercut another company solely to take their flying. Nobody should bid for these places.