Hence why staying at a regional for life (if you're young) is a risky plan. There's always someone coming in willing to do the job for less. That will never change, and is not specific to airlines either, it's any company that thrives off of qualified, but inexperienced work. When cost to do business at your company is higher than xyz company, guess who's next on chopping block. The majors are a business, and at the end of the day, they really really really do not care that you're going to lose a week of vacation, you may have to downgrade, quit, or look for new work because your contract is too expensive. They're running a business, just like Apple, Exxon, Caterpillar, etc. Comair, eagle, mesaba, express jet, horizon, they were all the tops of the regionals...who's in the cross hairs next? History has a tendency to repeat itself....

 

I maintain that being the plug at a Major/Legacy is still better than being #1 at any Regional. It's always better to have the insignia on your paycheck be the same one on the tail of your airplane that you fly!!!

 

Envoy has a flowthrough, so not many lifers there. The only airlines that have the most lifers are Asa/ExpressJet, and Skywest. I'm at Asa, and we have probably 300-400 lifers. Our airline is so top-heavy, that we are going to lose the regional race. We won't attract new pilots, all we can do is shrink down to the lifers eventually, then they'll be pushed back to reserve and 20 year captains going back to FO. There is no quick upgrade here, nor a high first year pay, nor any flow-through, nor any signing bonus or retention bonus. The only way to get topped out lifers gone is some form of early retirement bonus...or a flow-through program.

Of course every airline has those who realistically can't get hired anywhere else because....they are weirdos.

 

For some people this is really not the case. Not everybody wants or needs to leave their regional.

Also, I think most of the active regional pilots of APC are looking to move on. So we are not going to hear from regional lifers much in the first place. Speaking for myself, APC is an easy *part* of keeping up with the news of the industry. When/if I find myself in a career destination, I will likely visit less. Then I'll probably be haranguing folks on some GA forum about flying my own (yet to be purchased) airplane; "My annual cost way too much, my wife won't let me fly, I replaced another cylinder, I think it would be cheaper renting!". Then finally, " Anyone wanna buy a '75 Skyhawk at a good price??"

Ahhh, dreams.

 

The plain truth of the matter is that the regional airline business model is broken. The fleets for the regional airlines are shrinking and the economics do not line up. They have to bid on flying from each mainline partner and those RFPs are usually long term contracts. After about 4-5, years pilots start becoming a financial liability rather than an asset. This has been stated many times from the likes of J.O. and others. I was told that when I was at Great Lakes from the President of the Company. Add to that, we that came from regional backgrounds are going to try and reclaim as much flying back to mainline as possible. In a perfect world there would be no regional airlines. All of that flying would be at mainline!

 

What's wrong with having pride in what you do? Guys like you think you're cool when in reality you're just immature, judgemental, and annoying. On topic, there's nothing wrong with people choosing to stay at a regional. There's a little more risk than at a major but it's still a far far better job than most in this country have.

 

To be clear, you don't have to be an airline pilot to afford your own airplane.

 

A friend of mine did the same...within 2 years he was making 6 figures and has 3x the QOL of me.

 

Mesa is filled with lifers as well. Some of them are making 12k a month too... Say what you want, there's very few jobs out there that you can walk into that offer a better QOL than a senior pilot at a 121 regional. I've tried to leave aviation in the past, what opportunities were available would have put me into a giant depression long term. If you have a good backup plan, good for you! Most of us better not quit our day job. If a major says yes, I'm going. If they don't, I'm a lifer. I am at peace with this reality.

 

^ this guy gets it.

Thing is ASA will never offer that retirement incentive. At least not any time soon.

They used to openly tell us "we don't want you to stay longer than 5 years because you become too expensive."
Ever since they can't find new pilots to hire it's become "we would never buy off the senior guys because we highly value experience"

Convenient and totally bs.