Shuttle-E170 or SkyWest-CRJ from Los Angeles?
 

I have a class date with Shuttle on E170 and a Class date for SkyWest on CRJ. I need your help making a decision very soon. I live in LA and I have to commute for both. Please give factual advice, if you have inside knowledge about both companies. More than anything else, I would like to know about the company rules, upgrade time and the future of the companies.

Seems like an easy choice to me:

Pay - Skywest
Base - Skywest (CRJ: LAX, FAT, SFO, PSP)
Stability - Skywest (I think?)
Real Airplane - Republic (Cause the engines are under the wings!!!!!!1)

Good luck ;)

Excellent point. Because the 727, DC9, Caravelle, Fokker, BAC111, and whatever other tail mounted engine aircraft weren't real airplanes. As well as the $37/hr that goes along with the "real" airplane.

Seriously, the ONLY thing that matters is logging TPIC, NOT were the engines are.

I thought my facetiousness was rather obvious, but apparently not. :rolleyes:

SalukiPilot once again FTW! He's always so full of teh appropriately timed funny! :D

If you can stand to be in the midst of the turmoil at RAH, the 170 is a great plane to fly. Beyond that they are BOTH regionals, with regional work rules and regional pay. Pick your poison.

1 vote for Skywest.

Definitely go with republic! Be a real man, avoid the lifetime "little jet" stigma. E-170 pilots can hold their heads high as they strut through the airport...

But seriously, you live in SOCAL and you even have to ask this question?

Still, there actually might be a case for republic...if your priority is TPIC and moving on, republic might offer a faster upgrade...I have no idea but that would worth finding out. SKW is hard to predict...right now it's about 4-5 years, but that could get much, much worse if the 2012 hiring boom fails to materialize.

If you want to commute from the west coast, SkyWest is your answer. Shuttle's bases are LGA, ORD, ATL, IND and CMH. You'll most likely get LGA out of training, which would require a bus or train ride from JFK to complete. The only bases that might be commutable from LA are ORD and ATL, but flights from the west coast seem to have high load factors and a bunch of nonrevs, all of whom will be ahead of you in priority. Also, ATL and ORD are senior, and you will be on reserve for quite some time should you be awarded one of those bases.

Congratulations! I hope whatever you choose works out well.

A lot of people chased the 2 year upgrade a few years back and ended up stuck or furloughed from places like TSA, PSA, and Republic. Go for the airline you can stick around for and be relatively happy with.

Republic isn't the worst place to be but it's not the best, either. I don't work for SkyWest, so I can't tell you what life is like there...but I would think commuting out of LAX makes this a win for SkyWest.

Good luck!

Seems like Skywest would be better. More West Coast bases and a shorter commute to ORD or MSP rather then NYC.

Do yourself a favor and go to Skywest. I am working within the Quadra-angle of evil and it aint pretty to commute let alone from the west cost. A guy that was in my crashpad in CMH (which is a real possibility for you) commuted from SEA and even if he got 3 days off in a row he spent 2 days just commuting on his days off just to get to and from work. Commutable lines are barely existant there too. I would go to Skywest on the Brasilia and upgrade quickly. Even if you were based in FAT you could drive the grapevine from LA just as long as it would take you to commute across country.

You live in LA and you're actually having trouble deciding...

Republic is leveraged 1:1. One misstep and they are very close to not making payments to someone. There is also a messy integration going on. Their FO payscale is a joke. If you get stuck in the right seat for some reason the pay scale stops at year 3? Or 4? can't remember. But the E170 has full size overhead bins so it minimizes the whole RJ feel.

SkyWest has more money in the bank than most majors. They have posted a profit in almost all quarters since the early 1990's. You live in LA. They have West in their name. SkyWest has NEVER furloughed. The pilots all got together and flew reduced schedules, took voluntary leaves and the company was ok with being fat for about a year to avoid any pilot layoffs.

Both groups are made up of 99% solid pilots. Each has a few tools, but almost all of us would have gone with the other carrier if offered a job there initially.

been at Republic for 6 years,

GO TO SKYWEST!

upgrade is non existent here right now we have lots of FO's topped out at $36.62 and hour at year 4, there is virtually no chance of having any sense of a life commuting from LA to any base Shuttle has.

Good Luck

Before I even scrolled down I was thinking that "Saluki" needs to come in here with a good image!

If its between the E170 and CRJ, haven't I heard of some majors not counting "Little" RJs for time? For instance, I thought I heard of one major who scoffed at ERJ time because it "didn't have leading edge devices." Seems like the E170 is a bit more what they are looking for if you are trying to get to majors some day (not trying to troll fyi, just repeating what I've heard).

The only place I have heard of scoffing at "little RJ's" was Emriates because of their minimum weight requirements that a CRJ2 or E145 don't meet.
The only US operator that I have heard any biases about is Jet Blue unofficially requires at least some jet and EFIS time. So 10000 hours all in a turboprop, no thanks. 9000 Tprop PIC and 1000 SIC in a CRJ200, welcome aboard.

Haven't heard the scoff thing. SWA, UsAir, UniCAL, DAL, & JB all hire E145/CRJ200 drivers. Not trying to flame ya, just saying I know plenty of 50 seat drivers who've been hired by Majors including myself.

It’s been a long time since I’ve read a more untrue statement. We’d had E120 pilots (TurboProp, 26,433 lbs) who have “never” flown RJ’s get jobs with just about everyone. Several are headed to FedEx at this moment with others either in class or on line with JetBlue, Virgin America, Delta (last fall), Spirit, AirTran, Atlas, Southwest and others.

Here’s a question for you, when did the E170 come on-line and before then how did any regional pilot ever get hired?

The majority of our (SkyWest) domiciles are in the west. Yes you won't get them right away but we did have a few who were hired in the last 2-3 month get FAT RJ FO. Even if you end up in MSP, ORD or IAH sooner or later you'll get back out west. The shortest upgrade time we have now is the E120 at about 4.5 years but as attrition and hiring pick up that time will fall. If you accept the E120 for upgrade you'll end up on the west coast someplace and might even get LAX.

In short when you take into account pay, work rules, domiciles, culture and Mgt I’d choose SkyWest. Plus there's no way I'd touch the debacle over at RAH, IMO only US Airways has a more unfavorable labor dispute.

You've got to be kidding. Sounds like self-delusional thinking on the part of some E-170 "real" airline pilots.

Here's a suggestion...at your first major airline interview when they ask why they should hire you instead of the other regional applicants, try telling them that E-170 time makes you better suited for mainline flying compared to lttle RJ pilots. Get back to us with how that works out.

Hopefully before too long neither will be flying 70 seaters for UAL anymore. I don't see 70 seaters surviving at the regionals long term. I don't know one UAL pilot that will vote for a contract that doesn't have the 70's either parked or rolled into mainline when their contracts with the regionals expire

Being a pilot of a completely different airline and flying a Saab for 4.5 years I'll just say that T-PIC is exactly that.

I can think of a few International carriers (Emirates for one) who won't accept anything except heavier jet time, but ALL of the domestic majors want T-PIC time. They don't specify or discriminate against the Turbo-prop guys.

I'm friends with guys/gals at both Republic and SkyWest and there are pros and cons to both. But frankly, if you live in SoCal and want QOL more readily available I'd go with SkyWest.

Just my $.02. Good luck and welcome to the airlines!

I think you guys missed that the OP (probably) lives in Louisiana (LA) not Los Angeles. He/She Mentioned that there would be a commute with either airline....

Also, according to Emirates' website, the "heavy jet" requirement is gone.. Just jet time...

That actually makes more sense... Usually when someone says they live in LA though they mean the west coast lol

LA could also mean Lower Alabama.

Tony,

Not sure if by LA you meant Louisiana or Los Angeles. Either way, I think SKW would be a better option. If you are in Lousiana, Houston is right next door and its a junior base. If you are in Los Angeles, there are west coast bases that you could probably bid into in a few months. I think someone mentioned that FAT is somewhat junior. Quality of life is key!

Anyway, here is where my selfishness comes into play......I was hoping to get into a Shuttle class so that I could get into LGA (which is the junior base from what I am told) but the class was full so I accepted a Aug 1 Republic class. I told the HR people to keep me in mind if someone backs out of the Shuttle class so let me know what you decide!:D

Cheers!

Same story here.

I chose SkyWest.

If that's the case then IAH is very Jr, he'll either get it right away or soon after.

Thread drift alert: My magic 8 ball says the 700's(66 seats) stay. 200's will fade out as fuel gets more costly. There isn't a viable model for 66 seats to be cost effective at the current major structure. Of course this could be amended but the pilots and management seem worlds apart.. 90+, different story. This has been beaten to death, so I'll leave it at that. But...

Back to the topic, regardless what you think about the future of 66 seaters, ask yourself, does the management team have a plan to grow, not just survive. Is management adaptable and does the workforce have esprit de corps? SkyWest has changed but, I think they have long term potential.

Ask ANY of the more than 900 Republic FO's that are capped out at about $37 and the will tell you to go to Skywest. They all have four or more years, with only about 20 folks leaving above them per month.

The top 500 guys at Republic are lifers that now have a decent quality of life, a decent wage, and don't want to risk furlough. That means you have more than 1,000 FO's waiting for 500 spots - add it up and upgrade is going to be a LONG time at Republic unless the majors start hiring FO's. Some are doing that now but if the shortage really occurs, that is the only way there is going to be movement at RAH.

Go Skywest.

This really shouldnt be a choice... Skywest all the way

Thank you for the comments,I live in Los Angeles.

Based on your comments, I believe SkyWest is a better airline. QOL is the most important issue for me and it seems that everyone believes that is at SkyWest.

I'm a Captain at SkyWest and I can say life at every regional can be rough but SkyWest is one of the good ones. I personally would choose SkyWest again if I had to do it over again. You will have bad days and good days but over all your experience here will be positive.

I think you've made the right choice, welcome on board and I'll see you one line.

I made the jump to SkyWest from another regional and I can tell you from personal experience this was the best choice I made. Overall people are happy here and it shows with the crews you work with. Nothing is perfect but in the regional world I don't think it gets much better than here, especially you being a west coaster. Welcome aboard if you decide on SkyWest!

Thank you all, it is my pleasure to be aboard.

Hey Guys.
I have my stuff in airlineapps and it has been updated as of a couple months ago. Is there anything that I could do to get noticed by Skywest recruiting? I have 980ish hours, so I am just below the preferred time. Is that a deal breaker?

Wrong thread and Yes. 1000 is a must.