Imapylot

Ok, what are my odds of my plan actually happening? Assuming I start as a new hire this year or next: Could I get PIT right out of training or shortly thereafter, upgrade in about 5 years at PIT and then go to PGD as a CA 5 years after that (10 years after hire date)?

Flightaware

Very unlikely that scenario will happen but of course not impossible. I’d say PIT FO, no problem within 6 months. PIT CA 3-7 years depending on company growth, PIT growth, and new bases. PGD CA, 15 years - maybe never.

PGD has little turnover on the CA side and the airport as it sits currently is saturated. If they double the size of the airport and base then you might have a shot. Too many variables at G4 to answer anything like this with certainty and we don’t have any significant retirements anytime soon.

Greybush

Can you give your opinion on PIE? What's the seniority situation there?

LoFly

There's an updated seniority/base chart on our website

Margaritaville

Florida will keep getting more senior as small bases grow and take flights away from large bases. Allegiant is committed to the small base strategy and are claiming they will to open 2-3 small bases a year going forward. Most of the captains and senior FOs in Florida are where they want to be. There is some churn in the bottom few FO spots, but upgrade in FL is pretty much the attrition rate, about 3%, due to retirements and resignations. So nobody would say never, but don't come here expecting to upgrade in FL, LAS, IWA or BLI. It could be 15+ years to hold a CA spot in most of the original large bases going forward. (LAS, IWA, FLL, PGD, PIE, SFB). Or you may get lucky. Occasionally they open a small base where some senior person actually wants to live (AUS, DSM, TYS) and that creates a slot in FL.

SladeTin

I’d say this is a good summary of what to expect. They seem to have no interest in growing the Florida bases beyond what they currently are. They want to move forward with more small bases instead. If you come here, it would be best to plan on Florida CA spots being nearly impossible to come by. You can ride it out as an FO, or move to whatever flavor of the week they come up with for their next base. The only way I’d see this changing is if they decide to expand by flying out of multiple airports in a city such as MCO/SFB, TPA/PIE, etc.

Greybush

Thanks for the info gents

tom11011

I am afraid I have to agree here. As more small bases open, they move flying out of the larger bases to the smaller bases. For example, the PIE base used to own all the flying from PIT, CVG, GRR, DSM, AVL, TYS, and BNA. Now all these cities are bases at Allegiant with their own flying into PIE. PIE is getting some new flying but its really not growing at all. So as a new hire while you might expect to upgrade to Captain in about 5 years, it will be in a less desirable base. You could be looking at 10-15 year upgrade in some of the more desirable bases.

It is hard to gauge seniority right now at the bottom of the list because of covid. I was looking at the seniority lists from May of last year to May of this year. The bottom guy on the list is still the bottom guy on the list one year later. He did move up 20 slots though as people obviously elected not to return after furlough. To get a better look, I looked at the middle of the list between May 2020 and May 2021. These people would be senior FO's or junior Captains. A person here moved up 8 slots during this 1 year time period from attrition. That puts attrition at less then 1%.

Markj

Thanks for the info. Would VPS be considered a junior small base even though located in Fl?

tom11011

I would say its not as senior as other Florida bases for sure and yes it is small with only 2 airplanes I believe and 15 flight crews. Most senior Captain in VPS is a Jan 2014 hire. Most junior Captain is a December 2015 hire.

Another way to look at seniority here is the bottom 1/2 of the entire list of 1000 pilots have been here less than 6 years.