Regional Lifers
 

Hey many does your airline have? I am curious to see what the rough percentage of pilots who will retire at their regional airline.

I'll start at estimating at least 100 pilots PSA will be lifers. Basing the people who arent flowing that can flow over, some of the comair sim instructors and the 60+folks who will likely retire within the next 5 years.

Most of SLC based captains at OO probably won't be leaving. In general OO has a decent percentage of pilots who plan to finish their careers at SkyWest. Thess are just my observations whoever.

Compass has maybe 5-10 who plan to finish their careers here. Even that might be high.

Regional Lifers
 

I'm not meaning this in a negative way but okay! I've seen a few comair folks that have no selected for the flow. And the 60+ people probably won't see the flow because of their seniority.

I would say even the "OO" lifers are reconsidering.. Seen some senior people leave.. But i would guess 300-400 out of 4000 that will stay. Mostly SLC.. (Only because its the oldest established base)

Horizon I'd say 90% of the captains are lifers. There's little to no movement.

Sorry Bro! Maker's Mark kicked in.

Agreed. The average age of an SLC CA must be 10+ years older than the average SKW CA (judging purely by my own personal experience.)

SLC isn't the "oldest established base".

I'm one of them. I'm 50, have a community college education and an A&P license with nearly 20 years of experience maintaining airliners. I am not qualified to move on so I'll stay at Compass. The thing that worries me is that I don't think Compass will be around in 15 years but I can always go back to being an A&P I suppose.

I'd guess about 200 (mostly CRJ) CAs out of 1200 total pilots at Mesa

My guess for 9E is 200.

What makes you think with most lifers that it is their choice to not leave? Make no mistake, it is very hard going on to the next step, being obese, failed check rides, Asburgers, age discrimination, letters of investigation, etc. The mindset that getting on with a LCC or something like Allegiant is an easy thing to do is simply false, might as well try for the big three. You need to work your butt off, figuretively, and litterally for some. You need to record yourself talking to notice all the wierd things you do that you never realized, and learn to act like you actually enjoy other human beings. As much as you want to tell the Spirit chief pilot to Fu** off for not valuing your time, money and effort to go to the job fair just to interview for the chance to do an actual interview, you need to either be a really good actor, change as a human being, or stay where you are currently employed. The part you may not realize is that you may very well be a lifer yourself.

Who cares about lifers? Oh wait, they must be in your millennial privileged/deserved left seat.

If you are referring to me then know that I am just curious to see so I get an aspect on how big the recruitment and retention problem will be at the major/lcc's in the next years.


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Not sure if the plan for many of those at XJT is to stay or go, but there are 885 that were hired before 2001. Before 1998, it goes down to around 315. Those guys are so senior, it'd be tough to lose the schedule.

What's so wrong with being a lifer? Compared to corporate life...a decent regional offers decent pay, benefits, time home, and more. Who cares what the equipment is. Life is about balance. I myself have a wife and two chillren at home and QOL is much more important than $$$. I got screwed time and time again doing corporate. Now I get a good salary, insurance, travel bennies, 401 and more. Why is that so crappy? I can see how guys going from flight instructing to 121 would think it's so bad. For those of us who had some corporate/135 in between, this is a pretty gosh darn good gig!

"Decent regional" is kind of an oxymoron. As RJ pilots, we're nothing but cheap contract labor. Completely expendable by the stroke of a pen once the lift contract is up or cancelled. It's a harsh reality that many of my fellow lifers don't seem to accept.

Yep, glad I was able to move on. There are a few exceptions of course and some have ridden the regional wave well and retired or will reasonably comfortable. Though they are certainly the exception I'd wager.

I don't begrudge those who want to stay it is their choice, but logically for the vast majority of us it is no-brainer to move on. As others mentioned, my old shop at OO has a fair amount of lifers who are mostly great folks. Some of the younger ones are gambling a bit sticking around but time will tell for them.

...isn't that what we're supposed to be doing anyways, don't expect it to be served to you on a silver platter.

read a comment on the FEDEX forum, this guy had his app in for 8 years, he finally got the call for an interview!!!

pretty much the top quarter of all captains at awac. id say thats anywhere from 100-200

Mainline salaries are going to go up considerably over the next 5 years. Unless you're independently wealthy, it's a serious mistake to stay at a regional, as you are spending even more time doing the same job for a lot less pay.

It's not about pay for everyone.

Buzz words, my friend. As you read posts you should look for buzz words like millennial, entitled, and social just warrior to name a few. If you find a post with these key words being used in a not ironic way, it's best just ignore what the poster is saying. Chances are it's drivel.

Count on the top 10 percent ofeach regional staying put. So around 1800 to 1900 total rj pilots.

Envoy has about 300 lifers. Majority will be gone in 5-10 years.

How many "lifers" did Comair have? Or about two dozen other regionals that closed their doors in the last 20 years.

Regionals are just not stable enough to consider being a "lifer" at.

Two dozen regionals shut down? I can think of Comair and ACA. Could you list the others?

PSP? When did SLC open as a domicile?

I thought I'd be a lifer. Year 17 on the pay scale and I make OK money (over $80K ytd, should hit $125-130K for the year)and don't work to hard. In my own bed nearly everyday and I've been around my 3 kids growing up. Living in SLC is relatively cheap as airline domiciles go and I won't commute.

With that though I know when I top out on pay here in a couple more years I'll get at best a 1% raise every 12-18 months. It won't come close to keeping up with inflation. That alone may force me to move on.

Haven't figured that out yet. Delta would be ideal but even with three degrees and a decent GPA as well as being prior military, I don't think I'm what they're looking for.

Unfortunately they are not looking for the best pilots for the job and don't appear to value airline experience

Give it a couple years.

What's more interesting is to know how many FOs are sticking it out for the big 3 vs LCCs.

524 of L-ASA's 1438 pilots have 15+ years. That's over 1/3 of the group. I know not every single one of those 524 are lifers but there's 124 with 25+ years.

AWESOME.

That's why being a holey owned is so important.

How can you be a regional lifer with a flow threw to the major partner?

Your right. Some want to fly heavies across the pond.