I am a new member at APC. I am getting ready to target regional airline jobs and I prefer those that I can commute to via non-stop flights from south Florida. I have looked at regionals that operate from Florida and the only ones that I have found are Silver (turboprop only) and Republic (Miami is a very senior base, according to what I have read on APC); realistically I will have to commute.
The "non-stop bases" that I found are the following: ATL, CLT, DCA, DEN, DFW, DTW, EWR, IAH, JFK, LGA and PHL.
Would anybody have any input on how feasible, difficult or even possible it is to commute to these bases from south Florida? My nearest airports are PBI and FLL. Any input on any of these specific routes would be great. I have read the forums and I am aware of the large number of pilots that commute from Florida every day, I am interested in how that works out in real life for a commuting regional pilot.

 

Any commute out of Florida sucks. Cheap and warm makes it a pilot paradise.

I commute. Trust me when I say this...commuting fugging sucks.

 

Nix ATL. Not worth the hassle trying to get there.

 

Move to a base.

 

You left out ORD. Im in the same boat though, I live in Fort Lauderdale. I just got hired at Republic, Silver and Skywest. I was initially going to go with republic because they said I could get the Miami base after about 4-6 months but with all of their problems and slow moving contract negotiaions I went with Skywest.
At skywest youll start out at either MSP or ORD and there are non stop flights to Chicago from FLL. A couple of months later you could get IAH and theres non stop flights there as well.

But yea, no commute is the best option, which is why Im moving to chicago next MArch/April.

 

Is commuting a problem for you because of the extra time or even day(s) it takes to get to work or the uncertainty of getting on the flight? I am willing to put up with the extra days it may take.
Have you not been able to get to work because of not getting on a flight? That's the thing I am most concerned with for now.
Thanks for the reply.

 

Thanks for that reply! Yes, I did miss ORD in my message, MSP is another one that can be done non-stop from Florida.
Has the commute to ORD worked out okay so far? I am interested to know how much "competition" you have in FLL to get to ORD. I am mostly concerned about making it to work. I accept it will be stressful sometimes.
Moving to base is something I prefer not to do yet. Of course, after commuting for a while I may change my mind!

 

That seems to be a recurring theme that I have seen on APC. Okay, ATL goes off the list! Thank you.

 

Knock on wood, but I've always made it home or to work. Gotta be proactive about it. I used to commute from PHX to IAH and it sucked balls. Tons of commuters on those flights. I do PHX to LAX now and it's better. About 25 flights a day. More commuters but more jumpseats available!

With commuting you lose a lot of time at home. You might have to go in the night before your reserve block or trip start. Finish late, and you might spend night in Hotel de Crew Room while waiting for the first flight home in the morning.

Commuting on reserve is hell. If you have a wife, kiss her goodbye.

I am glad we have the option to commute because not everyone wants to live in lovely cities like Newark, Houston, Detroit etc.

 

You say that now. Get back to us after doing it for a month or two. As a commuter, my 11-12 days off can easily turn into 7-8. Commuting is the absolute worst part of the job.