I flew 64-68 seat ATR-72's for Continental Express. It paid less than the ERJ even though it had less seats. It sounds like you guys want paid more for more seats, but the industry always puts turbo-props below jets. The ATR was a lot more complex than the ERJ. It's funny when Continental got rid of the ATR's for jets, they said they did it because passengers didn't like props. Now they are going right back to them? They did it in CLE, then IAH, and now EWR. So much for the "all jet fleet" for Continental passengers.

Do you want to hear what I got paid to fly a 68 seat aircraft? Contract '95 paid $26/hour for the ATR. That's captain pay, not first officer ($12/hr). The best way to increase your pay is to get out of the regionals as soon as you can. Good luck to all those trying. I wish there was more hiring going on.

FYI Colgan is currently staffed @ 3 crews (6 pilots) per aircraft, so you are predicting they will double the staffing with the addition of 25% more aircraft?

Interesting math.

My bet is staffing will stay the same or slightly increase, maybe to 7 pilots per aircraft. Colgan runs a slim operation.

not all planes are staffed at 3 to 1. Most are staffed at 4 to 1. THat's still pretty slim. BCD is right i believe. THey will need more crews for the Q's than they previously used. From the conference call, it sounds like they will be hub based, so I'm sure we will have some ppl sitting reserve at EWR. THey don't want to take the chance of not flying the plane because a crew wasn't avail. It also means close to another hundred or so FA's. As far as pay, horizon is the gold standard for this aircraft for pay. I'm sure we won't see that. I bet it will be closer to what pcl pilots get paid now on the crj. Even if we had a union now, it takes a long time for a contract to get ratified. Historically, the first contract sucks anyhow. I'm going to speculate here, but I bet the pay will be a touch better than we are thinking, so that mgmt can try to keep the union off of the property. Or, maybe they will lowball it and just wait for contract negotiations in a yr and a half from now. Who knows

Staffing is 4 to 1 and at my base 5 to 1. No way it is 3 to 1.

What George said. I've got the seniority list in front of me right now. It's a solid 4 to 1. Slightly more at some bases, like Houston.

That being said, I'm just quoting Chuck Jr on the 250 number, and he does the hiring. Obviously, some of the 250 will be for attrition.

6 saabs + 15 Q's = 21 planes X 8 = 168

They've been losing 5-6 captains a month plus the fo's that have been leaving. I think the fo attrition will slow, but the captains will continue to move on to better jobs. But that's another 60-70. That puts you somewhere close to that 250 new hire number.

250 hired, with an increase in total pilots of about 150-170.

Colgan is one of the most poorly run regionals, go figure Larry the Bean Counter is going to use them for the 74 seat flying, cant wait to see what you guys are going to be paid

I'm not predicting anything - we have 5 Capts in ORF and 4 F/O's we only need 4 because we have a check-airman that usually gets a IOE - I was merely stating what I think is a good level of crews/AC

hahaah Jack still around hehehe

JHW is 3-1

Saab, do the captain that fly with you like you?

You're just a flat-out di*ckhead.