Best Regional(s) in a Bad Economy
 

I'm a 135er exploring making the jump to the 121 world.

I've seen a lot of questions/answers about pay, reserve/upgrade times, bases, flow, QOL, etc. Great things are happening in the regional world (or else I wouldn't be looking). However, from all I can tell there is a given assumption that nothing bad will happen to the economy that would negatively affect regional employment in the near term.

That said, I've never seen this question asked/answered, so here goes....

IF you felt the risk was fairly high that the economy was going to take a hit in the near future and there was a risk of getting furloughed because of your low seniority, what regional would you go to? What regional is likely to best weather an economic downturn and recover from it the fastest?

Obviously, good pay, upgrade times, etc. means squat if one is sitting on furlough. Also, please understand I'm not trying to rain on anyone's good-times, I just want to take the worst-case scenario into consideration as I evaluate all the present job opportunities out there. Thanks.

Colgan or comair

In this order: Chautauqua, American Eagle, Big Sky

As implied by the sarcasm above, there is no right answer to this question. Some might be better than others...but in the regional world the tallest blade of grass seems to get cut first.

Don't forget ACA.

That Airbus idea was pure genius!

I have nothing of value to add.....but the the pure, unbridled sarcasm from the jaded gallery is fantastic......I've been laughing for ten minutes.....

Sorry SqueeG.....it's a rough crowd man. I've been beaten like this recently.....

Just pick one that is close to where you live. They will all hire you. Then in 3 years look back and see if you made a good guess. It's all luck and networking at the regional level. The best become the worst, the worst become the best...repeat, rinse, get out ASAP.

I think if there was a world meltdown the only Reginals left standing will be Skywest because they have so much money they can start their own airline and weather about 30 years of losses. Anything owned by Hulas, Tsa, gojet and compass because they are too cheap to fail. And last but not least, Mesa. Because like cockroaches, they won't go away.

If the econemy were to tank I wouldn't want to be at a regional period

Two things survive a nuclear war... Cockroaches and Mesa.
The lowest cost providers will survive, always.