Skywest vs Envoy
 

Alright so i know this is a pretty hard time for a new hire to pick a regional airline with all the opportunities. I am looking for some of your guys experience and humble opinions on the topic.

The two airlines I have been considering to go to are Skywest and Envoy. I have just completed a interview with Skywest and was offered the 175(which i wanted).

I also have a interview lined up with Envoy. My problem is I obviously do not know who to go to. Envoy seems to be coming back and has a FLOW to american. Skywest does not but has me in the aircraft of my choice and a upcoming class date. I also understand that envoy enjoys some pretty good flight benefits through american, I do not know how skywest's are.

Out of these two airlines, what are some of your thoughts? Bases do not matter to me at this point. Thanks for reading.

Be a big boy and FIGURE IT OUT YOURSELF like the rest of us did. Read the forums, spend a little time talking to actual employees, and use that grey mush on top of your neck to make a decision. Jesus Christ. What are you going to do when you actually have to make a hard decision? Poll the passengers?

There have literally been DOZENS of these posts in the past two weeks of people begging for the rest of us to solve their problems for them. You circumstances are no different than hundreds and hundreds of other pilots who are also having a hard time making a decision. Not sure about SKywest's pass program? Do you think there might be a thread somewhere in here where you'll be able to ask that question?

Don't worry, nobody likes Cbreezy very much. Unless you really want to go to American, and are willing to stick it out at the regionals until you get there, go where you are going to have the best quality of life. Going forward, most new hires at American will come from the three wholly owned companies. A flow could take 3 to 10 to even 15 years. I will tell you though that regardless of what regional you go to, if you build some time, you are going to have opportunities after about a year, here and over seas. While its nice to have a flow, they are subject to change, so you want to go some where that if you are stuck, you can have a good QOL.

I have flown for both... Go to SkyWest.. Eagle was great. But just disappointment after disappointment.. Just the way they roll. SkyWest has been great. Looking foward. Eagle (sorry cant get over the name change).. Has all its eggs in one basket. And i dont ever see them growing huge again... SkyWest on the other hand is set to grow.. Enjoy the ride..

The other thing to keep in mind about the flow to American. If you look at the quick take page, American plans to hire 1500 over the next 5 years. PSA has about 1200 on property, Piedmont almost 400, and Envoy, I'm not sure but right there that means it will probably be close to 5 years before you flow. Granted, not everyone will take the flow, but that will probably be balanced out by the military applicants, and the few other airline applicants that will have much more time than you, and maybe even better type ratings.

If you are on the 175, your flight benefits are on United and pretty much useless. If we start flying the 175 for Delta, then the flight benefits are not that bad. You can get Zed fares on different airlines. Zeds are still standby but at a discounted price. If you want to be back east like ORD and MSP, then you will have good seniority and quick upgrades. West coast is slow movement and we have probably the worst reserve rules in the industry.

Speaking of which, it would be awesome if all these people that had offers from multiple places would tell SW that they are taking other jobs because the reserve rewrite is in its sixth year of being just around the corner. If you are east coast and off reserve quick, count your blessings.

1.) Airplane doesn't matter. A jet is a Jet. The cool factor wears off in a matter of weeks. Ask anyone who has been doing this.

2) Envoy has more opportunity right now for a new hire to get in on the front end of a big wave with a huge amount of movement to AA. We have higher attrition off the top than any other regional airline out there currently. It hasn't seemed like it lately because we shrank so much recently and negated all the Captain attrition to AA over the last couple years.. but now With the 175's coming in starting in November, and the returning of block hours to us due to others not being able to staff it, the shrinkage is stopping and the movement will start again. We are planned to lose 300+ CA's to flow next year alone when the flow rate increases after we get the first 175 on property, plus all the other attrition we still have like everywhere else for people getting hired elsewhere. Envoy Attrition will be around 500 pilots next year and then on beyond that, we have only 2030 pilots. Do the math on losing 300-500+ a year with Captain upgrade hovering around #1200 right now.. things will start to move very fast now that the shrinkage has leveled off. The front of the hiring wave is where you would want to be.. IMO. The top 320 pilots aren't flowing either, they are lifers. We have had 523 pilots go to AA in the last 3 years. Plus a small number of street hires outside of that number. Next year should have the highest # of flows we have ever had. Flow starts going from 20/mo up to 30/mo limit in November.

Piedmont would also be good if you want to get to a Legacy.

I think Skywest is a good company, definitely has been one of the "better" regionals for a long time.. don't have anything bad to say about them. They Just won't have the same amount of movement off the top and opportunity to get to a Legacy with no interview like Envoy.

Here are the Envoy flow numbers to date:
http://i57.tinypic.com/2q0qe6u.png

One problem Eagle faces with the fliw is how to staff the movment that creates. Its been hard for them to do. All that meens is a overall smaller Eagle. That olan is already in motion. A guy/gal hired soon can expext a Eagle 1/3 the size it has been.

Knowing what I know about SkyWest, I would go to Envoy.

The flow is nothing to dismiss, and regardless what anybody says there is some preference to ALPA members.

Management can and will change the rules as they see fit, the mantra "Company Need" will screw you any chance they want.

It has been hard because we were losing aircraft and nobody wanted to come here.. which I wouldn't of either.

As soon as people realize the movement that is about to happen now that the shrinkage is finally stopping, we are gaining block hours again, and we have new replacement jets coming arriving and have the massive attrition of CA's leaving off the top.. people will start to come again. Just like people lateral moved and flocked to PSA, Compass etc for movement.. Classes are starting to fill up already now, guys from other airlines like Republic are coming over. We have the biggest class sizes we have had in 2+ years this and next month.. Even if we continue to shrink down to 1500 pilots.. the movement will be huge losing 400-500 guys a year off the top and senior FO's to LCC's.