Bearhawk23

Hey APC!

I’d love some advice on a decision I feel super blessed to make. I live in Troutdale Oregon just a short car ride from PDX and am having trouble making a solid decision on which airline I’d like to fly for right now.

I have classes for both in August in the E175. Here are my current pros and cons for both. I’m positive I will love every second at either company but would love some insight!

I was honestly a huge Skywest only pilot but with me starting to settle down nicely in the PNW and having some real roots holding me here (friends, family, house). I’ve started to really consider Horizon because of how commutable it is. I always hear two sides to commuting. That it’s not as bad as people make it out to be or that it’s easily doable if you plan accordingly so would love some thoughts there!



Horizon Pros:
PNW based with a drivable commute to Seattle
Expected to hire 400-450 within the next year or so
Huge jump in my seniority if this is true so being PDX based is very possible
Smaller company
Opportunity to become a check air men or trainer sooner

Horizon Cons:
ZED only for intl flight benefits
Less diversity in there routes
Less pay

SkyWest Pros:
Huge diversity in the flying
FLIGHT BENEFITS (huge plus for me I love to travel!)
Better pay
Just in general always hear great things about company culture and employee satisfaction

SkyWest Cons:
I will be commuting my entire career there unless PDX goes magically junior for FO and Captain
Huge company
Potentially less opportunity to be a trainer / check air men? Not sure about this one tbh.

My end goal is to fly wide body freight! Fedex, Kalitta, UPS if that matters at all!





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skblu

Simple, don’t commute.

Utah

PDX is a really small domicile for SkyWest. Junior FO has over 1500 pilots junior to him on our seniority list. 20 + FOs are waiting to get in to a base with a total of only 30. Rumor has it the additional Alaska aircraft will be based in California as well.

It's going to be a really long time until you can hold PDX at SkyWest.

And the junior Captain has over 16 years with the company.

Holding SEA would happen sooner, but it still might be a while.

Commuting to BOI would suck. Most of the trips start really early requiring a commute in the day before, and you may not be able to get home on the last day of the trip either.

Bearhawk23

Thanks for the comments both of y’all!
I’d be willing to commute to Denver or SLC. But I am 100% saying that with 0 experience commuting on benefits alone. I’ve held previous jobs where I had to commute 4 hours away but those were positive space. Would you recommend not commuting if it can be avoided? A big thing for me for Skywest is the flight benefits and just the variety of flying!

Also I’m not sure what upgrade times will be at horizon but it definitely sounds like at Skywest as soon as you hit minimums you’ll be upgrade if you choose to.


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threeighteen

Go to Horizon. It's very unlikely that you would be able to hold SEA ER7 CA or PDX ER7 CA at SkyWest before 2030. Those seats are held by hardcore SkyWest lifers, so you'd be stuck commuting to DEN if you wanted to upgrade.

PossibleDeviation

Avoid commuting at ALL costs!! Go to Horizon.

amcnd

Go to QX. With there 8 aircraft growth and pathways to Alaska, you will will have faster movement at QX.

Excargodog

What is your end game? Lifer at a regional? Or going to a major? Right now pretty much all the growth at Alaska seems to be at the regional level, either at Horizon or even more so farmed out to Skywest.

If your long term goal is a major, go Skywest, fly your butt off to get all the hours you can as quickly as you can and go somewhere there is either a whole lot of growth or a whole lot of senior pilots retiring.

Bearhawk23

Thank you everyone for your responses!
I would absolutely love the opportunity to fly for Fedex, UPS, Kalitta, or Omni! I also think all things said and done Horizon is actually going to be flying a ton and already is right now from what I hear. Do you think that majors have a preference for Skywest candidates though? That would definitely be a factor for me if that’s true!


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PossibleDeviation

No

~filler~