Quote:
Originally Posted by goljal
Hi guys,
I'm considering some regionals and I would love some feedback from anyone who's been at Air Wisconsin for more than one year. Can you give me some specific feedback as to how this airline is different from others.
I've worked for a very large regional and now AW where we now have 550 pilots. There is a definite feeling of being a part of a team here that I think you won't find most places. The attitude here is just different and it makes me look forward to coming to work on most days even when operational issues are a challenge. It's also very easy to become a big fish in a small pond here so if you have some ambition this is the place to go. They just promoted an FO to Assistant Chief Pilot in MKE who had been here for less than a year. There are huge opportunities here for those who want them.
AW training is tough. That's no secret. But it's a small industry and the majors/LCC's know a good training program from an average one. Southwest hires a huge number of our pilots because they know our pilots will breeze through their program. All regionals are not created equal and you want a good one on your resume if you can get it. It does make a difference.
After having been here for 8 months I'm around 410/550 in the company. That's 25% of the way up the list in less than a year. That's some serious movement and the CPP hasn't even started. Even if the CPP accounts for 5 pilots a month that's still an additional 10% of the current group per year on top of the movement that is already happening.
The other major differentiator that I think people don't completely appreciate are the trip and duty rigs. You'll routinely see a pairing with 15 hours of flying and 21 hours of credit. This is huge and it makes it very hard to compare our pay rates to other companies.
I'm not saying everything is perfect here, but when comparing regionals I think AW is one of the few smart choices.