A training contract is a big red flag. If an airline is a decent place to work it should be able to retain you without financial threats. Also consider that there will be many promises that airlines will make to you that will not be met. Perhaps you may pick an airline for a domicile that will be closed on you out of the blue, etc. You sign a lease, or buy a house, your significant other moves with you and gets a job, and then all of a sudden you are displaced or furloughed plus you have a training contract hanging over your head if you decide to bail. These type of situations inevitably happen in this industry. DON'T SIGN ANYTHING AND DON'T TAKE ON DEBT!

Bonuses are another matter. I think that bonuses for new first officers will go up and up based on the supply and demand of ATPs. Very few qualified ATPs are going to come aboard for $25,000 per year (much less sign a training contract) so airlines will have to continue to sweeten the first year pot and compete against each other for new hires.

 

The careers come at the places with branded flying. The same companies that award their regional flying to the lowest bidder creating the regional whipsaw. The regional pilots have tried standing up for ourselves time and time again and each time wound up unemployed. But if you would like history to repeat itself we can bring down all the subpar paying regional companies which would pretty much be all of them except maybe Skywest and Horizon.

 

A training contract is not a financial threat. It's a mutual agreement, period. If you don't like it then go elsewhere. Regional airlines don't make promises. They tell you straight up that they are under the mercy of the major carriers and may have to close a base here and there. I wouldn't sign a lease or buy a house until you get to a major and even then, there is instability everywhere in aviation. If you want a job where you don't have to move around a few times or get furloughed then you should not have become a pilot. What did you expect, the airlines to cater to the needs and wants of each pilot? If mainline takes a dump on regional flying routes and the company needs to close a base should the company ask the pilots first if that is okay? If somebody bought a house then they should just leave the base open and lose money? Why would anybody ever think about investing in a company who isn't out for the best interest of the shareholders?

 

Good on you!

 

Well, who comes first? Your employees, your shareholders, or your customers?' But it's not a conundrum. Your employees come first. And if you treat your employees right, guess what? Your customers come back, and that makes your shareholders happy. Start with employees and the rest follows from that.

-Herb Kelleher-

I don't think Karma will ever be convinced, but I'll try any way with a little bit of why Southwest is where it is.

 

Just to throw this out there... Silver Airways DOES NOT have a training contract. Alright... that's all I got.

 

That's not a good analogy. Lets analyse what's really going on here. Silver and RAH don't have a training contract for the same reasons. People in this industry make lateral moves all the time and leave Lakes, Silver, CommutAir, Piedmont to fly a jet or increase QOL. I don't even want to get into why they do it but the bottom line is that is an undeniable fact and that explains why places like Lakes and Silver have a training contract. You don't see very many if any people leaving RAH to move laterally and go fly at Eagle or XJT, maybe a few to Skywest if they are from the west coast. The reason RAH has a training contract is because they have hired a lot of overqualified people lately, ex. Comair, Colgan, Pinnacle, Ryan International, etc. Now that major carriers are actually hiring some of these people might leave and advance their careers before a reasonable ROI can be recovered. You didn't often see people leaving RAH before 1 or 2 years before all of the above existed which is why only in the recent years the training contract was added at RAH but places like Lakes and Silver have had one for ages. It wasn't added for the reasons you state, such as the employees are being treated badly. It's nothing more than a simple insurance policy. The company is dropping over $30k for top notch training at flight safety, it's just wrong to leave the next day.

 

So, are you saying that Silver does have a contract? I'm trying to sort through what you said, and waiting for the punch line...

 

Karma is right- if you want to protect the interests of stock holders, then sign a training contract. If you want to protect your own interests and those of your family, then don't.

I speak from experience. I've worked for 5 different "regional" airlines over the years. One had a training contract. The one with the training contract was the most unstable place to work and I left with about 6 months left on a 2 year contract. I never intended to not complete the contract when I signed, but after 2 displacements and a furlough I changed my mind. It's a difficult situation. You're damned if you stay and damned when you leave. It sucks when the bill for what you still owe on the contract shows up at your house (Yes, most of those contracts still try to charge you even if the company furloughs, or even fires, you). You people need to think about this before you sign the dotted line. You better explain it to your wives too!

The days of 250 hour pilots are over. What is a company really providing you as far as training goes nowadays? New hires should pretty much have 1500 hour ATPs now. Many guys already have type ratings and many hours in the aircraft they're being hired into. New pilots have got to stop looking at this like they're 18 year old buck privates signing on for a stint in the army. The dues (college and ATP) are already paid. The airline should be paying you enough to make you want to stay.

 

I count two sentences saying that Silver HAS a training contract and one sentence stating that Silver DOES NOT have a training contract.
And the winner is...........