flyingm2

I am in the Pilot Prep Program, and I love what I have seen so far of the company. The work rules/contract, pay, benefits, etc. seem really good. My question is where do pilots typically end up? I have heard rumor SWA likes Republic captains, but just small talk I've heard go around.

My worry is if I do end up at a company without a flow, what happens in the future? I would love to end up at United one day or another Legacy. I have a lot of friends at WOs (PSA, ENY) who say that they are the way to go and I might get "stuck" at a privately owned company.

My other option I have been highly considering is PSA- as I live only about an hour North of CLT. Thoughts?

I am approx. 2 years from being ready to make a transition.

Thanks a lot guys!

MuPpET

Nothing will be the same 2 years from now. Ask yourself these questions 18 months from now.

Longhornmaniac8

We've all been where you are now. When I was there, I was so frustrated by getting answers like you were given above when asking for advice. Now that I'm here, I truly understand the sentiment. This industry is so volatile, and so much will change in that time. Contracts, work rules, pay, possibly mergers, there is just so much that is unknowable looking forward.

The best advice I can give you is to hold off on committing yourself as long as humanly possible. Some cadet programs (e.g. Envoy) want you to sign a 2-year commitment a year before you'd hit mins. That is insane, and no one should ever do that.

Republic is a great place right now for all the reasons you mentioned. I see no reason why we won't continue to be at the top of the regional pecking order, but the details will change, and as always, the devil's in the details. Will we take delivery of these 100 planes we've firmed up? If we do, upgrade times and reserve times could conceivably continue dropping. If we don't, we've drastically overhired over the last year and you'll see upgrade times and reserve times go up as we have an oversupply of FOs. Will the economy take a turn for the worse? What strategies will our mainline codeshare partners take with their regionals and how do we fit into that?

WN does take a number of our pilots, as do all of the airlines. Fewer, as you'd expect, from the likes of AA where most of their new pilots are either flow from the wholly-owneds or ex-military. This, too, will all change in the next 2-5 years as retirements really ramp up.

Here's the dirty little secret they won't tell you at the WO regionals: flow can go away at any point, too. It's a recruiting tactic, but in this day and age, it shouldn't be a primary means of moving on for anyone with a college degree. Insurance policy? Sure. But sitting at a regional for 6-8 years in an era where we're upgrading in 2 or less and should conceivably be competitive for most airlines in another 2 years means unless you HAVE to go to AA, you're more likely than not wasting your time flying at a regional when you could be making more elsewhere.

All that said, any opportunity one has to drive to work is immensely valuable for quality of life.

Give it a year. Keep tabs on the things you're currently already looking at, and see where the winds take us this time next year. Pay special attention to other airlines and their contract situations. While I think we all like having a dick-measuring contest on some level and enjoy being near the top compensation among regionals, the reality is, if others get contracts better than ours, it increases our leverage during negotiations. Right now, the company has sizable leverage simply because we're filling classes for the next 6 months. Everyone wants to come to YX, and that doesn't give the company any incentive to up our pay or improve our work rules.

Look at ExpressJet. They've really struggled filling classes, and have been hemorrhaging pilots right and left for the last year. That, among other things, forced their hand into upping pay. Things are improving somewhat over there now.

Excargodog

^^^^THAT^^^

Although much depends upon you. The legacy retirement wave is only ramping up, but it will be creating in about three or four years. You can take some risk, hurry, and perhaps still be on the leading edge of it, or you can do the slow and steady way and get on somewhere where you will (POSSIBLY) flow to a legacy seven or eight years from now and forever be behind those who were a few months or years quicker off the mark.

The BEST regionals, IMHO, are those that run a little lean and may not have the best QOL but have good efficient training, short reserve times, and then proceed to fly your butt off averaging the maximum 83.3 hours of FLYING you can legally average so you can acquire 1000 hours of 121 SIC time, and THEN will permit you to PROMPTLY upgrade and get 1000 hours of 121 TPIC. Even better, the regional should have a domicile you can get (both as an FO AND as a captain) within a two hour drive from wherever you intend to live.

Because that 1000 hrs of TPIC is the coin of the realm that will get you on at a desirable major/legacy. The sooner you get it, the better. And yes, right now the AA wholly owneds are touting flow and United Express is talking about CPP and Endeavor is talking DGI and Horizon is talking their Pathways program. And if you were within a couple of years of flowing, that might even be important, but you aren’t, and seven years is an eternity in this business. The hot regionals today might not even exist then, and flow programs of all kind can come and go. Even at the major/legacy level contracts can be broken and payscales and pensions can be reneged upon (through bankruptcy - just ask a Delta pilot or Alaska pilot).

Best bet. Do what you can to expedite getting ATP qualified and get in the game, then get hired somewhere you can live near your domicile and fly your butt off. If that company has a flow it MIGHT be helpful, but don’t depend on it. Get apps out to every major as soon as you have 1000 SIC and update them every two weeks until you get the call.

05Duramax

The only thing I would add to this is keep track of how far out classes are for the airline you decide to go to. It wasn’t long ago you made your decision, did your interview , and got a class date 3 weeks out. While it might be that way at ExpressJet, at Republic classes are filled almost year out. So just keep that in mind.

Also, Republic of 4-5 years ago is not the company you see today. I think as Republic continues to be a top tier regional, attracting top tier talent the majors will start hiring more from the Republic pilot group. This is just speculation of course.

Joachim

The reason YX is selling their QOL advantage hard is because they have a clear disadvantage when it comes to career progression and getting out. I spent a decade with YX and saw them progress from a bottom tier feeder on par with Mesa to the Skywest quality type operation they are today. This was done out of necessity. My suggestion would be to go with the best WO deal you can find. A beginners airline is not where you want to rest your laurels and prioritize qol unless you are older.

ICUROOK

Literally half way down on the front page there is a thread with the exact same title. Did you even look, or felt your circumstances were unique and required special attention because you're special?