I have recently signed on with a regional airline... I start training very soon. We do not have flow to the majors. I did not consider flow very much when making my decision. It was more so based on being able to drive to work, contract, pay and current upgrade time.

I have two buddies coming up behind me and they are so determined that the quoted 3-5 year flow to American from PDT is the greatest thing ever, they are not considering any other choices. Not that PDT is a bad choice... I've heard good things and did highly consider them (the outstation bases ultimately knocked them off my list). But is this flow really that big a deal?

I know that Eagle guys who were promised flow ended up sitting there for a long long time. Is flow more of a solid thing now with hiring picking up?

Anyways... Just curious to see what people think.

Take it easy!

Envoy will tell you it is

If you accept a job that has flow, you cannot work at the parent airline outside of the flow. Ie you limit your choice of legacy carrier from 3 to 2. Mainline doesn't want to destroy their own feed so the flow keeps you inline. If/when it works it can be great. But when things slow down it can be awful. Some airlines had back flow! Large carriers like Republic without flow will be the first to fail as large airlines canibelize their pilots.

It will be... AA will make a one way in (pdt, eny, psa) decision besides military soon

In 5 years, a flow won't even matter. The floodgates will open, and the major airlines will being hiring at an unprecedented rate.

Yea....sure

So I guess all those guys with LCC time with an Airbus type rating, possibly even pic that want to make the switch will have to go back to a regional as FO that has flow. Makes perfect sense right?

Talk to me in 6 months. Too bad for them.

I'm yet see any solid evidence that said 'floodgates' exist. I find it hard to believe that the hiring environment with the majors is ever going to be in the same sport, let alone the same ball park as what the regional side is in now.

Have you seen any charts for actual retirement numbers at the major airlines? The numbers are pretty staggering. They're gonna have to pillage all the regional airlines to fill seats.