SkyWest PDX & SEA jet bases
 

Just came out. Jets for PDX and opening SEA.

You think it will go junior or senior on the FO side?

Yea, my wife just got the priority message. Pretty cool as we live in PDX and she is a SLC commuter. My guess it will go senior on the Captain side. FO ?

My hope is that lots of the people that go are SLC commuters, then I can have an SLC transition

Plenty of commuters, from SLC, DEN and ORD. I bet they both go pretty senior.

newty,

you and the bro were made for each other.

Senior? My guess, 10+ yrs to hold as CA and 4+ as FO. The backfill will be nice; there are a lot of MSP, ORD and IAH pilots who want bases DEN and west. After all, we are SkyWest.

Discusting........................................ .............

Welcome to the new AAG and living with their choices.

it's just five 700's. or is it?

portland sucks. no one should transfer here

Makes you wonder.

What are the staffing numbers?

23 crews for each base is what i heard.

30 years with no fatalities to be replaced by skywest. Just wait till this happens to you. Someday you'll be bought or bankrupt, and you'll regret cheering about today.

At 4 crews per plane then that is 20 crews for the 5 we already know about.

But sea and pdx will have 50 ish crews.

5 too many if you ask me!
SL

You do realize what is happening with respect to pilots wages and benifits in the industry because you think this is awesome, right? As long as their are people who are "just happy to fly a jet", regardless of pay, we are all f'ed. I guess your parents are cool helping you pay to live.

The wage debate is getting old. Yes ours is less but if you think that’s the cause then you’re delusional. The cost of operating 10-20 CR7’s is FAR greater than operating 412 CRJ’s. Yes wages play a part but they are a drop in the barrel. SKW is now in SEA and PDX and at some point they will be replaced; that’s the industry we live in…………..contract carriers.

I love how regional pilots can be such school girls.

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!!!!!!:mad:

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.

Personally, I couldnt even get a foot in the door to be based in PDX or SEA nor really want to since I live in ORLANDO, kinda pointless to go to one of the most senior bases and be on perma reserve and fly 6 hrs to/from work.

And you believe what management says for what reason? They'll say *anything* to get people to work for cheaper.

I have no idea if a comparable Horizon pilot makes more than a SKW guy or not. Obviously the pay rates are higher, but there's a whole lot more that goes into compensation....actual block has only been about 70% of my paycheck the last couple of years. With my previous airline's work rules a lot of that would have been lost.

This is the nature of the regional game folks...love it or leave it (and I don't see how anyone can love it, if you take my point).

Anyone under 50-55 who expects to retire under comfortable circumstances from their current regional and domicile is DELUSIONAL. That goes for SKW too of course, although a large economy of scale makes SKW a little harder for mesa or other johny-come-lately's to undercut. But don't think it can't happen under the right circumstances in the long run.

Not really sure how it can be said that Skywest is single handedly trying to eradicate union labor when Skywest owns two union companies.

But if Skywest does try to take all of horizons flying it wouldn't surprise me. The regionals are going through the same period of consolidation as the majors including some predatory competition. Working for a regional that is owned by a major you're going to be more at risk for losing your job because the larger wholly owned regionals are going to have the advantage of economies of scale and be able to underbid your flying. The majors will also shed the regional they own in a heartbeat if it's costing them money or they think they can save money by having someone else do the flying.

Ultimately it is just business, and any successful company is going to attack it's competition in an effort to continue it's own growth. Plenty of airlines do it. For example Southwest does fare sales while it takes a loss to gain a foothold at an airport.

Business is business, but you still have the ability to not accept employment for compensation that is less then you are worth. By not demanding more for you abilities, you are enabling the management at majors to continue the race to the bottom for all of us. When or if the pilot shortage happens, your actions will not be forgotten. You can plan on paying for the consequences of your decisions. If you don't like the constant badgering by the union folks, then do something about it, don't just claim "don't hate the player, hate the game", that excuse is for the weak.

Wonderful you have economics of scale. That gives you leverage. The rest of us wonder when your group of super happy pilot stars get some form of real pay for replacing so many torpedoed careers? But as always with Skywest; new flying means FASTER UPGRADES, BABY!

They are supposed to go to home depot because YOU don't think they make enough?

Wake up....

How much is enough? 90 k for capt and 50k for fo's? That's what those guys who are going to SEA make. It's enough for them. You're gonna have to come up with a better argument than "it's a race to the bottom" and "they shouldn't work for those rates".

It may make you feel better to vent, but it's not an answer to your problems.

It was said tongue in cheek

The "you" isn't you personally... it's the collective you.

Everyone would love to be paid more, however having said that SkyWest pays better than a lot of regional airlines so I fail to see how it's a race to the bottom.

Is collecting food stamps and unemployment better than making around 50k as an F/O for SkyWest better? Hey I've got a better idea lets all blame the flight instructors they're the ones really bringing things down, I mean working for horrible wages and being all non-unioney.

Also, the empty threats are lolz.