If you are a young 30-40..ish, just getting into the industry, or perhaps been around, paying your experience DUES, SWIFT NOT BE the place for you.

My recommendation, is that the regional carriers are the place to be.

Here is my reasoning. Pay, Benefits, and Quality of Life, are normally on the top of the list of things that attract new people to a company.

PAY - Almost the same for a new hire F/O, given the bonuses being
offered at Regional airlines

Benefits - Most of the regional airlines have some kind of Group Labor
agreement Swift has none, and Has Threaten to FIRE any who
dares try, to get one going.

Quality of Life.... well only you can define what it means to you. If you
work your days off trying to make extra money, it may take
you 4 months to convince them that you actually worked for a
living. NO OT above 60 hr Guarantee. Might as well stay home with the family

Apart from the above, The items below may better serve you through the long term of your career.

1- Much better training at the start of your career.
2- Yes, Jet time. Except for the weight category, they are all the same.
3- You will get experience you need for the Majors.
a- Routes
b- schedules
c- commuting
d- All types of Weather
e- You will find that most regional companies actually are up to date
with scheduling technology, maintenance technology, people in place
that will give you the tools to DO YOUR JOB, AND NOT GET YOU VIOLATED, OR SEND YOU TO A COUNTRY THAT SEIZED
THE AIRCRAFT YOU JUST ILLEGALLY FLEW INTO THEIR COUNTRY, THEN MADE THE CREW SLEEP/STAY ON THE
AIRPLANE FOR 16 HOURS WITH NO HOTEL
f- You will not be forced/ pressured to fly a broke aircraft with an item that has been written up 6 times, then a cowboy
Captain was called out to fly it.
g- There will be a system in place to handle FATIGUE calls, without being fired for calling fatigue. SMS...
h- No pay for Dead Heading, No Recurrent Training Pay, you will spend 60-80 HOURS off Computer Based Training on your
time, without compensation. No Minimum pay for a SHOW, NO GO call out. If you flew a 1 block hour flight with one of
the sports teams, it may turn out to be a 6 to 8 hour duty day, but PAID 1 hour block pay. No PTO (paid time off) if
you need a day of to take the kids to the doctor, you have to call in sick your self, then sick days are very scant.....

I could continue with a lot more, but by now, it think you see where I'm going....

My Opinion..... Based on my experience

Don't know if there's an easy answer to this, other than Mesa/Gateway, Miami seems like it would be one the nicer places to be based. What's the reason for it being the most junior? Schedule, routes?

Thanks.

It’s the biggest base with the most flying. Really the only people who bid MIA are those who live in FL. It’s probably the harder flying. Doing 2 turns to Cuba will wear you out clearing customs twice.

Flying:
Cuba charters multiple daily
Venezuela charters
Cargo flying
Vacation charters in the summer

On the other hand they’re very busy and you can average anywhere from 70-90 hours a month there.

I personally like variety so VIP for me has been good. I get to do it all. Just not a fan of flying into Cuba.

Why Mexi you are looking at the regionals now? Serious question. If SAir is that bad please enlighten us as you did argue with me over SAirs stability.

Swift is stable, they’re making money. Just saw a picture of a 767-300 painted in our colors down south. So when that begins I have no idea. Not to mention the acquisition of Xtras airplanes which will push the fleet to 24 acft.

Stalk much?

Second as I mentioned before they’re getting behind the curve of compensation wise to the likes of endeavor and republic. The regionals which are really where the most steady supply of pilots are, are making it hard to find a good supply of qualified pilots. I have had multiple express jet pilots come to us asking about us and because of the fall of ATL for them. Which obviously now endeavor is the big honcho taking over ATL.

Management is supposed to be meeting this week to address a lot of these issues. Through the pilot recruiting we see a lot of the issues and are trying hard to address it to the top echelon. This place has a lot of potential but they need to step up and play ball with the big contenders!

On the plus side looks like we are adding airline apps soon. Which has a 97% foothold of the pilot application market!

And to add, if someone asks a question about another airline. It doesn’t mean Swift is sinking like the titanic. Get a life guys.

But I do not think compensation is the biggest issue from what I saw and have heard. Quality of life and the treatment by management, especially the C.P., who likes to scream, threaten and berate people. I did hear he is on his way out. I wrote to the D.O. when I left but crickets. They lost, three, type rated, internationally qualified B737 Captains in 6 months and 2 jet experienced FOs. The manager of training quit in haste and they are trying to find someone now who will put up with the mess training is. It wasn't the pay that made us leave.

Something isn't right there. They will only be able to survive for so long the way they do things. They aren't the only ones either of course. The days of beating pilot's is over. Pay and quality of life is important now. There are still a lot of us who would go somewhere decent and/or small if it was worth it. Simple, make it worth it!

What the guys said above about the regionals is spot on.

Good luck. Things are better outside of SAir.

Manager of training left to be with his children after personal matters. He’s still working remotely for Swift but not leading the department. Sad to see him go, outstanding person!

This place has a lot of potential as I mentioned many times before. But they have to get over their own inhibitions to move forward. People come and and go. Unfortunately in a small company of 120 pilots losing a handful of pilots is impactful.

2 are MIA guys and have a history of jumping around and didn’t expect them to stay. One I think is going to WA as a DO or something. The other is going to something called air21 which is another one of those Venezuela mafia airlines with DC10s. They’re throwing money at them hand over fist.

1 thankfully got a job at net jets and couldn’t be happier for him! They’d be lucky to have him.

Time will tell, this place for me has been a good stepping stone to build PIC on a Boeing aircraft which I enjoy flying a lot. We have some very good people who really stick their necks out to help make this place better. The top doesn’t always see that, but together we know what it’s all about. I think if they had some big airline people buy this airline they could have the resources to shape this place up to the level of sun country.

Please keep me updated on any changes. . . I really would like to work there, and if pay and QOL (commuting) could be addressed, I know I would be there in a heartbeat!

We’ve been getting a lot of ATL pilots especially from xjt. Plus we have a lot of pilots including myself that live in ATL. If they would open a base here like a gateway base we could acquire people!