Regional pilot development program
 

I am a newly minted CFI working at a flight school in the Northwest. Just recently, Horizon set up a recruiting event at my school announcing their brand new "pilot development program." I interviewed for the program and was accepted with the following conditions. I will receive a $7500 signing bonus now and as soon as I reach 1500 hrs I will immediately start working for Horizon with a 2 year obligation. If I am still 18-24 months away from reaching ATP minimums, do you think this is a good thing? I don't feel like I know nearly enough about how things work to make a good decision so I appreciate any advice!

I think that would be a terrible idea. If you still have 18-24 months of instructing, who knows what 18-24 months is going to do to this industry. The last thing you want is to be tied to Horizon and there be a 10X better deal for you to take with a different regional when you have your time.

If I were you I would just focus on getting my time and keeping up with the industry, but don't even think about committing yourself down to 1 regional yet. When you are about 6 months from getting your time, that is when I would be seriously considering which regional you would want to go to.

Not a good deal. $7500 to give away all your options no bueno.

Terrible deal. Get your hours first. Then get that or a better offer without the 2 year commitment.
In today's industry I wouldn't commit to anywhere for 2 years.
With where you are for hours, it's way too soon for you to choose an airline. Things in this business change overnight.

If you are a newly minted CFI I would suggest you do what ever you can to move from a school that only offer 50-60 hours per month. There are several schools that offer 80-100 hours per month.

Then again you might now be mobile.

If you did sign the $7500 now because you absolutely needed the money to finish school, you could always go somewhere else later that was offering more money and pay back the $7500 with the larger bonus checks that are being paid out elsewhere. AA wholly owned are paying $20k, so you could pay back the $7500 with that. But, you would burn a bridge before you ever really got in the industry. It is also ethically wrong.

Pedro is right - you can get 80-100 hours a month and get in the game a lot faster.

Just curious, any examples?

Sounds like you might be at HIO. I suggest do not take the money. Instruct until you've got 500 hours TT then try hard to get a job with a Pictometry vendor. They typically pay a lot better than your gig at HIO and you can build time faster while gaining real-world cross country experience. Then you'll have your pick of regionals and be able to take whatever bonus is offered at the time. My $0.02.

This also is not an ideal solution, almost like a Robin Hood line of thinking - steal from one to pay another. But as you'll see from our friends at PSA, ethics aren't really a driving force of their business model. :D

Just enjoy the flying. Focus on honing your craft, while developing the next generation of pilots behind you.

Congrats on starting your career - we're excited for you and hope to have you continue to share your insight and experiences! Good luck!

just look back 3 years ago in this industry... jobs were hard to come by, the pay was in the low 20K across the regional world... Now anywhere you go, you will mostly get a $7500+ signing bonus and a first year off total income in the 50K range, and you need to have a pulse to get hired... Imagine how much can change in the next 2 years... you could be making a really good choice grabbing that $7500, if everything craps out in the near future ( not likely ) or you can be selling yourself short if this pay and signing bonus madness keeps going up, (most likely).