Don't do it. DON'T. You'll wind up with 10 years in the right seat of an RJ. And if you think I'm kidding we have FOs with that are in that situation right now after coming from other airlines with 3-5 years seniority that they gave up.

Ive been were you are. Eagle for 6 years before comming to SkyWest. Been here 7. Worked for me.. Could for you, could flop.. SkyWest is a good company with alot of cash and the will to push through this industry..the next 3 months with the shake out at DL,AA, and UA will reshape the next 10 years. Good luck..

It's a tough decision. Honestly I don't know if I'll face furlough or not. This Delta TA could mean a lot for Pinnacle. Does Skywest own a lot of the 200s they fly? 700s/900s?

I want to work for a good company that takes care of its pilots. It's hard to find nowadays.

Btw, I'm on reserve. I can't do the commute to JFK even to hold a line.

I disagree with your forcast, today is a completely different day and age. Those at SkyWest who are 10 years in the right seat are there by choice and the next 5 years will look nothing like the last so basing your opinion upon the last 5 is seriously flawed. Mark my words, RJ upgrades come 2015 will be less than 3 years and EMB with be less than 1.5 years..... and falling.

But as far the 4.5 year guy at 9E/XJ, stay put! Mainline’s about to start hiring and you’ll be just fine.

Normally I'd agree, but with recent emails from the union that the company has put off BK negotiations, makes me wonder if Pinnacle is the next Comair or if they will be one in the same. I have been on reserve for most of my time here and I have just gone backwards with relation to seniority. Pay is the only thing keeping me here right now.

Listen everyone says the majors will be hiring. They'll be hiring in another year probably 2014 there aren't big attrition numbers in 2013. Secondly, do you have turbine PIC? If not, make the move. 9E WILL be another Comair. Delta has all the strings and with the company walking away for negotiations and the new award for displacements all point to ch7. Sending a Saab guy to training for a Q400 which will be gone before they even get online should be a clue that Ch 7 is looming. By the time 9E shakes out I am willing to bet there will be 1500-2000 guys left. If you wait it out you'll miss the life rafts outs of there ie SkW, Express, Horizon ect.... Upgrade time at SKW is more like 5yrs for the Bro and maybe 6yrs for the RJ. Now, in another year or two you'll see those numbers drastically drop as the majors gear up hiring.

As for pay, by second year at SKW, you will be making about the same as 5yr fo pay at 9E.

I do not have any turbine PIC. I've been on the 900 in ATL for 7 months now, and enjoy it, except for being at the grasp of scheduling. In 4 1/2 years I've received about 1500 hours because of the reserve life. I'm still about 7-8 junior from a line. Obviously if I went to DTW I would hold a line, but that doesn't change the company I'm working for. I just want to know how the QOL at SKW is compared to 9E. Also, having a base commutable to, is important. Not that I don't want to be on the Bro, but those bases would be merely impossible for me. These are issues I'm thinking about.

Junior bases on the RJ are MSP, ORD, IAH. I am a former 9E'er now at SKW and it's a world apart from how management acts, thinks and treat their employees. Apparently, SKW wants to hire 30 a month until the end of the year.

Forget about “age 65,” the majority of mainline pilots are bailing well before the mark. Delta was scheduled to lose less than several dozen in 2012 but to date they've lost a couple hundred and counting. The fact of the matter is pilots will retire when they are ready and "when ready" is subjective.

Come on guys, this isn’t rocket science; look at it using common sense. Retirements will happen ahead of schedule for many reasons, just use your head.

My advice is to stay put; the majority of your captains want to leave as bad or worse than you!

PS. The fact that you've listed Horizon as a "life raft" tells me you're not paying attention to the industry.

Help me with the math on this one. Junior RJ captains have seniority number around 1700 out of 3200 on the list. So a newhire is roughly 1500 numbers away from RJ captain if we stay the same size. They'd need that much attrition in 36 months to hold the junior seat. We've been losing about 5 captains a month over the last year. (And thats why the upgrades have been at a near standtill all year long) 2/3rds of our attrition is on the FO side and a good part of those are the ones not making it out of training. I do agree that attrition will double or even triple in a year or two, but we'd need to have 40+ a month leaving as of today vs. the 15 or so that it's been to get a newhire 1500 numbers up the list. ( Junior EMB captain is around 2100 or 1100#s away for newhire)

Another thing to consider is that we have nearly 600 FOs that could have held captain based on their seniority but didn't bid for it in the past. With future hiring looking brighter, they may decide to give up the good FO schedule for the PIC time in order to move on. That will change the dynamics as well.

If we add airframes it helps. If we get rid of the EMBs like the company alludes to in the financial reports or park 200s as per the current Delta contract it'll hurt. Someone more familiar with it will have to chime in, but I remember hearing years ago that the 200s start getting parked at a rate of 10-15 per year starting in the not too distant future. As in we only operate 700/900s for Delta past 2017 or so.

As far as the 10 year remark, I'm including his time that he already has. I'm based out west and mostly fly with he more senior FOs (the junior ones based here have 4+ years), but it makes me nearly sick to fly with someone thats been here 5-8 years in the right seat (which sucks on its own) and have them tell me that they also spent a number of years flying for another regional as well. I think I'm making peanuts on 13 year captain pay, but to know that they have nearly a decade in the industry and might make $50K if they work a bunch -:mad::mad::mad: