AV810

Bonus programs or pay rates at the other regionals put new hire first officer pay at about $50,000 to $60,000 for each of the first two years. Skywest publishes $37/hr with a 76 hour guarantee and no bonuses (except rotorwing transition), about $34,000/yr. Additionally, Skywest employees have no Union protections. Serious question: why does anyone choose Skywest?

amcnd

Funny you say this. But when you compare a 10 year SkyWest captains pay with other regionals, you won’t include SkyWest’s 6 bonus checks a year.....

I guess im one of the “older “ guys on APC and get tired of everyone demand 60k a year to start. SkyWest will be close in pay soon. (big meeting next week) but some of us started at $14.50 a hr. And there was a time when Delta was 24k a year to start and you would have to start as a flight engineer!! Like to see you guys survive that!!!

gojo

Could be that bonus checks don’t count as guaranteed income. And people at McDonald’s didn’t make $12.00 an hour either. Wages up up everywhere. Not to mention the cost of flight training and the cost of college tuition. Maybe that’s why people want a better rate of return these days. Why should someone have to enter the profession that they trained for and not be able to pay back student loans for several years?

deadseal

Don’t want to create a ****ing match with you, however I must point out that just because you had **** wages doesn’t mean people should accept **** wages now. This line of thinking is selfish. 2 wrongs don’t make a right and all that Jazz. Skywest pilots need a proper union. If anything, just to separate church and state during negotiations

Check Complete

Best words I've read ever!

Nothing could be more true!

amcnd

I don’t disagree with the Union statement. But when Endeavor was “bonus’s” people said that was fine. But not with OO... double standards being thrown right now..

rickair7777

Probably because of geography. Personally I would need about an ADDITIONAL $200K/year to live in or commute to some eastern toilet.


But the real question is why do you care?

Excargodog

It's actually a little worse than you paint it - especially for newbies - because of a few other issues:

Double occupancy? Like a dorm room? Now is that the end of the world? Clearly not. But is it sort of chintzy. Yup.

Yeah, I know,I know,it gives you someone to study with - but somehow the other regionals newbie's pass their type-rating despite having their own room.

So not only are you getting $3 to $8 less an hour during training than other folks, you are getting 10 hours less a month than trainees from other regionals. Again,not the end of the world, but still- chintzy.

And after that:


It doesn't matter what you are actually flying on the CRJ fleet, for all your soft time you are getting paid at the lowest rate possible for the fleet.

and:

So basically, you get these substandard pay rates now,and they get even worse for the next 4 years because the pay increases already locked into the agreement are LESS THAN THE INFLATION RATE.

Now realistically, that's not going to happen. I know that, you know that, very possibly even Skywest management knows that. They simply aren't going to successfully compete for new hires without improving their bonus and/or compensation package, so it's going to have to go up or they are going to be folding their tent. Already they are having recruiting and attrition problems, but this is all symptomatic of a mindset,and that mindset is that they are going to do the minimum possible in the way of pilot QOL and Payscale to allow them to compete.

According to old-timers it wasn't always that way, they speak fondly of back when Skywest was really the regional to be at, but it is certainly NOT that way now. Unless the mindset of the Skywest management changes, it doesn't seem to be the place to be now. Not unless you are already there and have too much personal investment in seniority to go elsewhere or are a newbie who has some exceedingly compelling rationale for going there that - frankly - most people just won't have.

But we are all big boys (and girls) at this level. Everybody ought to analyze their own options and do what's best for them. And anyone who doesn't - anyone who just goes in starry eyed without doing their own research - well, the blame is on you,nobody else. It's not like working conditions or pay scales are secrets or anything. Pay your penny and take your pick, but don't ***** about it later if you didn't do your homework first.

amcnd

Because as a “old timer” thats what we had to do!! It was industry norm.. and no SJS. Just a craped out turbo prop... and then 24k first year at a major. 50/50 chance of having to sit sideways for 2 years.. im glad its pushing 50k to start now. My kids will have it easy..

bamike

This guy is spot on. The reason many people (myself included) went into other jobs is because we took one look at the pilot profession and said no way in hell are we going to accept the level of risk and difficulty of being a pilot for $15 an hour. The fact that you did accept those wages has no bearing on us. Please don't sell the rest of us short because back in the day you decided to fly a jet for less money than the butcher working at Costco.