The most junior FO at IAH was hired in March 2016. So, there is movement at IAH.

A one year commute based on statistics today.

These numbers are meaningless considering the base ahead become smaller and smaller.

Isn't the future of every base uncertain in the long run? The fact is that a FO just one year out from being hired is now based at IAH. It isn't impossible to be based there.

Also, IAH is not shrinking overall. Mesa's flying is picking up there.

His options if he wants to live in base at IAH are:
ExpressJet (with its CA upgrade and other issues)
Mesa (with its reputation)
SkyWest

Which of these three would you recommend to our new prospective pilot who doesn't want to move? If flying was the simple answer, then it would be Mesa. I couldn't make that recommendation ever.

Well being that guy got into Houston when there were 80 crews says a lot. Houston has went from 120 crews to 20. United has made it no secret that the flying in Houston was shrinking. Mesa is not getting more flying they are getting flying that Skywest and expressjet use to do, and they are still reducing that. That being said it's always better to come to Skywest and commute than go to Mesa and live in base.

Yeah, maybe it just seems like Mesa is picking up flying there - particularly with the E175. They just seem to be putting new pilots into their base there. But, they may be putting new pilots into all of their bases given their reputation.

Mesa is the only airline that I know where FO's have recently quit and completely given up on their 121 dream, and they lay the blame on how Mesa treats their FO's. I'm sure there are others out there with other regionals, but I haven't come across any.

I recently flew with an FO based in IAH that has been here almost two years. With the base shrinking he's on reserve and not breaking guarantee. He has to travel out of domicile to pick up other trips to make extra money.

As a new hire I would not plan on ever being based in IAH unless Mesa loses their flying with United. And it doesn't look like that is happening.

I looked into expressjet but read somewhere that they may park some of there e145s, plus some dudes here at my unit have been sitting reserve for over 2-3 years in IAH.

Don't quote me as my memory is a little fuzzy, but I believe ExpressJet is losing +100 airplanes. CRJ2s and E145s

I've been looking at this too, does overseas operations/operators count?

In summary: There's no good option when it comes to being IAH based.

The only (sorta) sure bet is Mesa but we all know it would bring misery that surpasses commuting...