Generally interview as soon as you can. There seems to be some movement coming in the spring and it may help your quality of life to wait actually at this point until there is some movement, otherwise you might be rsv for 5 months instead of 2 with only 15 new pilots behind you.

Is the contract prorated? If so, just go for it ASAP and pay the couple months left on it and the lease.

I was in a similar position to yours, as far as needing to wait a couple of months. I took the interview but had to defer a couple of class dates, but I was the first one in once I could take a class date. The "seniority is everything" has validity, but you gotta do what you gotta do. It comes down to what you want to do, they aren't going to tell you "no," and hiring will for sure be going on somewhere. Good luck

Thank you everyone for your responses. Unfortunately the contract is not prorated so I'm stuck. We slow down a great deal in the summer months though so maybe the boss man will have mercy on me. In the mean time I'll do the interviews, explain my situation and see what happens. Regardless, for everyone's sake I hope the hiring keeps up!

I'm sure you have already considered this, but if you are part 135 current, there are lots of other opportunities open to you other than the regionals. For example, there is an air ambulance opperator advertising on the orange web site paying $72,000 a year plus benefits flying a King Air. PIC turbine time right there. You could do that until the majors ramp up their hiring and skip the whole regional B.S.

To answer your original question though, it all depends on the company. I was literally in class one week after applying for my first regional job. Other peaople can wait months.

Several friends were in class one week after interviewing at the regionals, and others, namely Skywest, have been waiting 5 months now for a class date due to over staffing.