Can someone in plain language explain upgrade times at Skywest, beside pointing to the most junior hired captain.
So there are approximatelly 1750 fo. How will they become captains in four years??? Asking for just a simple math brake down.
Thanks

Can someone in plain language explain why everyone is making a new Skywest thread for every dumb question? There is a Skywest thread with a huge history that answers most of these questions.

The upgrades + FO attrition would have to equal 36 per month AND they would have to hire as many FO's at the same rate as attrition CA+FO.

The days of the regional airlines is coming to an end.

FOs unwilling to relocate or commute to junior bases where the upgrades are available. So the upgrade just goes down the line until someone accepts it. If upgrades were purely by seniority and you weren't allowed to bypass; upgrade time at SkyWest would be much longer.

gone are the days of up or out, to bad.
reason they start a thread on skywest for every question is because they are so big and are one of the sleaze of the industry. world revolves around skywest and when they crap, it is all down hill.

The upgrade TODAY is about four years. That in no way predicts upgrade opportunities for today's new-hire.

To achieve four-year upgrades in the future, the fleet size would have to remain stable or grow (unlikely & very unlikely) and attrition would have to continue at a good clip (reasonably likely).

As was mentioned some FO's will wait until they can hold a good schedule before upgrading (with luck you can upgrade, get your TPIC, and move on before that guy comes in on top of you). Some FO's will never upgrade.

This is how upgrade is measured at ALL airlines, the only concrete thing to base it off of is the hire date of the most junior CA. Anything else is speculation. The current upgrade for PSA, Mesa...etc. let's say is 1 year, that is based off the current hire date of the most junior CA. They have been hiring so much that if you think getting hired at either of those airlines today you will upgrade in a year, you're kidding yourself

I see words here, but not much else. Want to take another swing? I asked for plain English, not gibberish.

4 years is the magic number now. It might go down a little but it will more likely start to trend upwards again as the 50 seaters go away, the other regionals win more of the flying and the overall regional flying gets wound down. There will be much west coast turmoil as new hires get forced out of their bases again as senior pilots transition into their spots. In 3 years or less, the landscape is going to be vastly different with many people wondering what the eff just happened.

The 4-year upgrade probably applies to one or two bases. If someone posted the most junior captain for each base, it would provide more perspective. I'd guess most bases still have 7+ year upgrades with 9-10+ years to hold a line. Also, if there is 2000 pilots on a list. Number 1000 would likely not be the most junior captain. The most junior captain would probably be closer in 1200-1300 range. The number of pilots on a list is also misleading because a percentage doesn't fly the line and when a company is hiring a lot, a percentage of the bottom is not qualified. Upgrade times are too fluid to calculate, too many constantly changing variables.