embraer

My wife and I are flying to HNL in a couple of days from DFW. Other than the two direct flights you also have plenty of options connecting through LAX, SFO, SEA just to name a few.

Remember, here at Eagle you get the same passes and priority on AA as mainline pilots. Pilots at other regionals don't have that.

In fact, I know of somebody who commutes to MIA from CNF (that's in Brazil, folks) with no problems. Yes, our travel benefits are the best in the Regional industry. Not only do you, your children, and your significant other get D1 and D2 passes but so do your parents. After two years with Eagle you also get D3 passes to hand out to friends and the rest of your family.

Priority on AA is based on whoever checked in first. It doesn't matter if it was an Eagle or AA pilot. Same goes for vice-versa on Eagle flights. The only place where they get priority on AA and we on Eagle is the jumpseat.

wayway8

I noticed those other flights, but I was thinking one hop from DFW would be the least stressful. Definitely nice to have multiple options available for sure. I was trying to read up on the pass system for myself, parents, and registered companion (I'm single). A lot to read to say the least.

Ultralight

Isn't island Air hiring? What about those guys who fly King Air ambulances? I'm not trying to burst your bubble, but a commute like that will get old very fast. God forbid you ever get married or have kids.

bigtime209

According to Eagle's CEO, they still plan on hiring 400-500 even with Republic coming in.

wayway8

I'm not planning on commuting. Just want to visit every now and then. Island Air has frozen hiring and their future is unclear. Pay has gone done recently, as has monthly guarantee.

RyanP

I'll add these posts to the Eagle hiring thread since they are probably more worthwhile here than the other thread I posted in.

Somebody asked about the training center:

I'm pretty sure we have the best training facilities of any regional by far. We are in the same facility with AA, and it is top notch.. HUGE facility (too big actually, kinda sucks walking all over that place if you have a kit bag with no wheels). Huge indoor pool for water training, surrounded by all the different AA/Eagle ACTUAL aircraft fuselages inside for training.. Rows of multi million dollar in house sims, truly impressive to see them all in motion.. (some sim time is outsourced to flight safety down the road, rarely to Flight Safety Houston, I almost always have had all sim time in house, have been to DFW flight safety only a couple times in many training cycles, which is actually nice anyway because they have free food, sandwiches or Pizza at lunch most of the time) You will learn quickly, if you are not already a regional pilot that free food for airline pilots is a big deal. We live for that crap. haha.. Our Classrooms are nice too..

Not that this stuff is vital, but nice to have.. especially since you spend a lot of time there every year. MONTHS during aircraft transitions or for new hires.. so it's worth thinking about it..

We have a Nice cafeteria with a grill and some good food, across the street in the huge flight attendant training center there is an even better cafeteria with many options, Mexican, deli, Italian, soup bar, sandwiches, grill.. etc.. there is even a nice AA flight museum here in the training center with a DC-3 inside worth checking out..

Training center is one thing I have never complained about here at Eagle.. except for the huge walking distances in the building, lol. It feels like you are training in a world class, Major airline training center.. because you are. You are not in some rented out craphole space or an annexed trailer classroom like some other places.. (not saying any names)

We get 15 minute breaks every hour and an hour for lunch (in training)

Training center is also only minutes away from DFW by shuttle, very convenient for getting home Friday after class gets out, or traveling to/from.

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about shrinking/flowthroughs:

Yes, we are losing 12% of our fleet over the next year currently, 9 remaining ATR's and 21 Remaining 135's will be gone at the end of 2013. Barring any new orders that may or may not come we will be smaller. About the new orders, they won't say, all we ever hear is it's NDA info (non disclosure agreement) and they can't discuss it until it is finalized.

All we have been told is there is a fleet plan for us, it should be released shortly, it includes more larger aircraft than we have now, not necessarily saying Eagle will be bigger, we may be smaller, (likely) but the planes overall may be bigger. To be honest, we really don't know anything, ALPA tells us nothing, company tells us nothing, and this could all be a giant load of crap.

I imagine the company is back and forth between Embraer and Bombardier trying to get the best deal, this is what it sounds like is happening. With Embraer they could be working on a swap, return some of ours in partial trade for 170's.. but the CRJ is already in or fleet so more 700's and some 900's would be easy as well.. so who knows what the real deal is.

Personally, I think we will get some bigger planes, from everything I have heard/read over the last year.. but I believe our overall fleet size will be smaller than it is now. I think we will be around 200-210 aircraft fleet within a few years, (this is just my guess, I could be wrong, I hope I am wrong), but If you look at the furlough protection numbers in our contract of around 2000 pilots.. that's what it works out to be. Currently we are projected to be operating 221 aircraft at the end of 2013 according to AA financial data. Attrition to AA and other attrition "should" more than make up for this, but who knows.. (this is the big variable)

If you want to look at numbers, we have 2916 pilots currently with rights to flow to AA on our list of 3001 pilots. So, "currently" we are slated to lose 12% of our fleet, but we could theoretically lose up to 97% of our pilots to flowthrough over time. Obviously the flow number won't be that high because many don't want to go, and it will take some years for that to happen (if it all works out), but that is what is theoretically possible, if people want to throw numbers around.. This is NOT including our normal attrition which has been running around 25/month leaving right now, so realistically, later in 2013 with the flows, we should start to see 45/month minimum leaving here starting in March. This additional attrition number will get a lot higher once the other Majors start hiring again in a year or so when retirements start increasing, but that will benefit any other regional as well.. We also have 17 Mandatory retirements this year at Eagle if you want to throw that in there. lol

If our pace goes to 46/month attrition (25 recent averages + 20 flows, + 1 or 2 mandatory retirements per month), a new hire could potentially move up to 552 #'s in a single year.. more once Major hiring picks up. This is something worth considering in my opinion.. even though it's the airlines and any of this could fall apart any second, that goes for any airline though.

All regionals suck, there is no way around that. Eagle definitely has some issues, but so do all the other Regionals. Our ALPA leadership is terrible, our contract suffered with the bankruptcy, you are not valued as a person, you are a number, management does idiotic things that make no sense and it will **** you of to no end.. but as much as I complain about this place, it seriously sounds even worse at all the other places. This is from many friends and from my years of riding others jumpseats and hearing it all firsthand.

This post is just some numbers info to maybe help someone weighing a decision on which regional to go to. Bottom line, I think we are going to shrink a bit before we start replacing the fleet with something bigger, but I also think attrition will be higher here by far than any other regional, and there will be faster movement here regardless of the shrinkage. So, it's a gamble, it is with any regional, don't think it isn't, ask anyone who has been in this business for a while.. but odds are pretty good it might work out better for a new hire here if this plays out right.

The only other place currently I would consider (for a lower time new hire, who won't have hours to upgrade fast anyway) is Skywest Inc.. I think the others are too volatile, not worth the risk if you get stuck there long term or if they take a nose dive, which is highly possible..

*Just got an update that the first Eagle flows should start going in the MAR 20th AA class.

N927EV

To add to what Ryan said, shrinking to around 200 planes in in 2013, new planes in 2014, and around 2016 back up to 230 air frames.

RyanP

Should be 221 aircraft at the end of 2013 according to what AA posted in their financial data. I believe the 3 returning 140's are Chataqua but I may be wrong, if not then we will be at 218 at the end of 2013.

The 23 CRJ-200's listed are Skywest, and 15 of the 140's listed are Chataqua..

Pulled from the 4th quarter financials:

embraer

I second everything Ryan said. I will just add that personally I couldn't be happier here at Eagle. Every week I go to work and come home happy and proud. My pay is actually pretty good, especially at the regional level. My QOL is very good.

Everybody I know in real life here at Eagle is equally happy. I can't say the same for the handful of friends I have that work for Republic, Commutair, and Expressjet. The only other person at another airline I know is doing well works for Compass.

The others range from "ok" to downright miserable. The "ok" one works for Expressjet. The others work for Republic and Commutair and admit everyday they made the worse decision of their lives. Not to mention their pay is significantly less than ours at Eagle with much worse QOL.

If I remember correctly my friends at Republic made roughly $17k their first year and $22k their second.

Here at Eagle I made $26k my first year and $34k my second. That is with ZERO overtime, ZERO flying on my days off, and NO junior mans. Some friends of mine who fly more than I do (aka: drop less trips than me ) made over $40k their second year.

RyanP

I have commuted to 3 bases and lived in 2 of our bases. My time at Eagle living in base was a MILLION times better than my time fighting commuting, day trips, 2 day trips.. life is EASY.. bidding for monthly schedules is less stressful, trip trading is easier, OT is easy, so many hours not wasted traveling to and from work, if something cancels, you go home for the night instead of buy a hotel, everything is just vastly easier.. reserve is still bad regardless, no way around that, but it's better if you live in base, with many more options to increase QOL and potentially just stay home.. I have tried fighting with commuting again and again, because I really dislike living in the current Eagle bases, but best advice if you want to be happy at this job:

DON'T COMMUTE!

It makes regional life suck. It is an absolute night and day difference.