At least that many hours..often much more

And a lot of them struggled with jets. Nowadays the majors have plenty of applicants with jet time so they naturally gravitate there.

I've actually started to get a sense that jet + prop is helpful. You're handicapped in the screening without jet time, but diverse experience is starting to matter... some of the one-trick ponies don't do so well.

Isn't flying turboprops HARDER than turbojets overall? Less automation, more hands on flying, more time spent IN the weather, more legs per day usually, more workload after losing an engine, not mention more fun going into short runways vs your standard 9000' ILS.

Very limited hiring in 2018

I have to disagree, this once, with you Rick... And agree with Bahamasflyer.

Give me the former Metroliner II Captain or the Navajo pilot who routinely shot approaches to mins 5 days a week with no autopilot, no anti-skid over the jet jock, with maybe no piston or turboprop time, who has auto throttles, auto brakes, duty rigs, A fund, B fund, union protection, ASAP, FOQA, whatever.

No shock cooling and cowl flaps like in Pistons, no condition levers, no worrying if one prop will grab more than the other resulting in asymmetrical reverse.. Jets are INFINITELY easier than Pistons or turboprops. Uh oh, too fast and/or high? Deploy lift dump.. Uh oh, too slow? No problem, jets have power to spare comparatively. Sure, things move faster and energy management takes a little time to master, but I promise you that I was never challenged as a Part 121 Turbojet pilot like I was when I was flying freight in Pistons and Turboprops (The jets in 135 were the safest) or 91K fractionals. It reminds me of the show on the worlds most challenging airports.... SXM is on there but Aspen and Teluride are not!?!? The show should have been renamed Worlds Most Challenging Airports that have airline service since it was obviously 121 pilots that were doing most of the voting. Even back in the '60s, my Dad said that the Jet guys at AA thought that they were better than the DC-7 and Electra guys. This continued into the 90's and 00's with the turbojet people thinking that they had a tougher gig, requiring more skill than the the Saab, Metro, ATR, BE-99 pilots. Wrong, IMHO.

When I hear someone flying a turbojet say something similar, I always ask them if they ever flew a piston or turboprop for a living. I guess you can tell what my background is, LOL.

Very well said 727! Even as a borderline melinnial/gen X guy, id rather fly a turboprop than an RJ if the pay, QOL, career advancement, etc were equal. Just so much fun to actually fly vs automate, as challenging as it can be sometimes.

SXM challenging? Lol. Rotflol.
15 miles away there is SBH, which is a million times harder. SXM is not challenging at all.

I know.. Right?

I nearly fell out of my chair when I saw it. SXM is just challenging for the crazy folks on the beach who tried to hang on the fence when the KLM B747 went to takeoff power. And no mention of ASE on the show, LOL. My Dad was actually a passenger in a crash is St. Bart's in the 1970's, but he walked away from it. As a retired airline pilot, he just played dumb when the French Gendarmes and Aviation authority folks asked him what happened.. LOL. He didn't want to get the pilot in more trouble than he was already in..