What is the thought on SkyWest's upgrade times in the future? I have an offer in hand with them, and I am about 99% sure that I am going to take it. However I am a bit concerned about their very top heavy seniority list, and the amount of supposed lifers there.

I know you're not supposed the chase the quick upgrade, but it would be nice to go somewhere where I know it won't take 7 years to upgrade. Any thoughts on future SKW movement?

 

I don't work there, but it's common knowledge that the upgrade time is pretty long. I think seven years right now. There are a lot of career pilots towards the top since it's probably one of the best regionals for labor relations, and they've been on a hiring spree the last year or so, so there will be many ahead of you.

Complicating this are whispers of ExpressJet integration; that's speculative and may never happen. But if it does, it'll be interesting to see how seniority lists are integrated (and how many more people are suddenly ahead of you).

SkyWest is a good company, but if you go, just realize you may be in that right seat a long time.

 

So which are the right ones? Been trying to figure that out for some time.

 

The ones where you don't have to wait 8 years to upgrade. In close second would be one you didn't have to commute for.

Everyone always says "don't chase upgrades" and "live in base" but my feeling is pilots should prioritize a reasonable upgrade time first in their decision.

Truth is both upgrade time and the ability to live in base can both change at anytime. But you make the best decision you can based on the information on hand at the time.

 

It's quite possible that management doesn't know what's going to happen either (although they might think they do). For example, when I was hired we had 7 pilot bases, and within a few years 6 of them were closed.

 

I just think that Daddy Delta knows very well what the plan is for Endeavor. Delta is the best run airline out there and has each and every step planned out very carefully in this "stable" environment. Of course, another recession or, heaven forbid another 9/11 event, would definitely throw the airline off course and there would be a lot of unknowns. However, I think Delta knows and is meticulously managing Endeavor. I give RA a lot of credit because he's a very smart businessman who has made Delta very successful. Don't be fooled by the BS Endeavor Management reveals because it's for their own gain...not the employees. Everyone there is just a number and is disposable. It's about the money. 9E needs to control the flow of pilots in and out and to do that they will say what the need to. I would never ever put it past them to lie over and over again to get what they need.

 

Filling classes is great, but perhaps we need to be looking deeper. I am hearing that currently the big problem is getting guys through training. 40% attrition rate of a new hire before they get out of IOE is what ALPA tells us.

 

Washing out or switching airlines?

 

I don't believe this number to be accurate of all regionals. Maybe just one in particular but it would seem that even Mesa without interviews is pumping out pilots just fine...

 

That's pretty interesting, because at the 4 regionals I interviewed at in the past two months, I made sure to specifically ask each one what their new-hire wash-out rate was? Every single one said they had between a 95% to 99% completion rate.