You’re cool.

45 new E175’s and 23 used 200’s. When SkyWest bought ASA and EJT they bothwere very heavy on the not owned aircraft. That ultimate hurt them...

It's not an absolute, and industry dynamics and timing play a big factor as well. Bottom line it's a VERY risky proposition for a young person to expect to have good pay and QOL at a regional for a long career.

I was losing sleep about the future of even SKW, if I had worked at AW I probably wouldn't have slept at all. Just because it all worked out in the end doesn't mean it was a fun ride along the way.

Mesa is always an option, they seem to never die even when they should have... I'm convinced the majors keep them around as a stalking horse, essentially a permanently installed sensor to monitor the exact location of the bottom of the barrel.

SKW has exactly one really big thing going for it... economy of scale (pun intended). They can afford to pay better because their overhead is spread out over such a large operation.

Here's my hard spot with regional unions... without a COLLECTIVE industry-wide labor system for the regionals, any union success at raising the bar imperils your career progression and job. The regional game is rigged, the only counter to that is rigged labor. Unions collecting dues and letting whipsaw occur willy-nilly doesn't get after that.

If alpa (or a dedicated union regional) were to establish some sort of collective program, involving longevity/seniority credit and likely flow to select majors the the regional business could at least be stabilized. In that case, still the likely-hood that the majors would simply shut it down if they keep costs low but I'd rather take that chance then commit to a career of whipsaw. Until this happens, blaming SKW for not being union is merely a means of venting your own frustrations.

Also, who cares? Junior upwardly mobile pilots tend to want their PIC and not care too much about how they get it. Older career changers don't have enough runway left to really need to worry about decades out. Very few young folks go to the regionals with the intent to stay.

Good quality of life and pay at the regionals is relative. You can take the best pay rates and the best work rules and the best benefits at any current regional and it will pale in comparison to aa, UAL, dal, swa, ups, FDX, etc. So we are not talking about pricing out the market. If this was true, places like AWAC, RAH, Mesa, gojet, TSA, compass, silver wouldn’t be offering TENS OF THOUSANDS per pilot in extra costs.

And you make a good point about economies of scale. Not only is Skywest not providing the pay that others are offering, they are not offering it while also benefitting from their size more than any other regional, ever.

Lastly, complaining about the regional pilot union structure as a reason why not unionize while also refusing change it for the better is just another convenient excuse. I’ve said this to you at least three other times and you keep ignoring it but I’ll say it again, pilot unions at regionals are a lot more than just a contract. But you cling on to that and ignore everything else they do seemingly because it’s an excuse to not support unionizing.

Where are the used 200s coming from? Have there been any aircraft previously operated by ASA that have been operated by Skywest?

I don't not support unionizing, like I keep saying I voted yes. But I get frustrated with the "over-selling" of alpa at the regional level. Need to understand what it will do, and what it won't...

Won't fix the industry.

Will cause a SLI at Inc.

Will lock in some rules, and likely prevent further QOL degradation (but the time to lock status quo was ten years ago... a lot more QOL back then. At this point it's slamming the barn door).

Won't keep the company from violating the contract.

Won't remove political games and self-interest from the pilot leadership group. Current leadership is largely pro-alpa, sapa by-laws just prevent them from being too vocal about it. Presumably they would run for MEC positions, presumably they would get elected.

Agreed.
Only thing I have to add is that the difference when having a union is that the company would be legally violating the contract. Without we don’t even get that.
When times aren’t as good as they are now for pilots, inc can just throw the policy manual in the trash can and make new rules. Not that simple with a legally binding contract.
So like you said, it would lock in things like QOL..among other things.

What? They might be able to get our IP address from APC, but they couldn't get the customer ID from our provider's IP address.

APC doesn't generally give out info without a subpoena... airlines can't do that, only courts. APC might possibly choose to cooperate with law enforcement, but certainly not airlines.

But if employers can match your user name to an email or user names on other websites, they might well identify you.

And yes, managers and HR lurk all of these forums.

Unless you're off probation at your career legacy, probably best to use a unique anonymous email and user ID for APC. Or be very careful what you say.

And you could probably be identified by anyone with access to the SWOL seniority list from previous post details. It has happened before.