Lynx Aviation (Frontier Express)

T

taildragger173

Well-Known Member
Hey Everyone,
I was wondering if anyone had any information on Frontier's Lynx Aviation which is supposed to start this comming May. Any word on the operation, hiring and so on. There doesnt seem to be a lot of information out there on Lynx. Will this place be looked at like GoJets or will this place be repuitable?
Thanks.
 
Hiring Captains only at the moment. They also had an ad out for FAs and a Technical Writer.

They are looking for something like 4000TT with about half of that being 121 TPIC time. I am guessing they are going to staff the first half of the Qs with Captains only and then start hiring FOs when the second half of the order comes around. That should give the Captains plenty of time to get their times up before they start flying with the FOs that come onboard.

As for the go-jet worry, I don't think so... They aren't being used to take anyone's flying and no whipsawing. Probably most of the routes they will fly will be new and designed to feed mainline. As for all the Republic 170s that gets added... That might be a different story but I doubt management will take it down that road.
 
Tim, thanks for the reply. Does Lynx have a website out yet? I havent been able to find anything on them aside from the minor blurb on wikipedia and a few press releases. Any ideas what their FO requirements may be?

Also last night I was talking to a friend of mine who is a King Air captain and he was looking at going to Frontier mainline but said that he held off on applying because he is worried about the financial future of the company. I knew that they lost money last year but the impression that I get about Frontier is that they are doing relatively well. Is their future questionable (more so than any other airline right now)? Are there things going on over there that I should be aware of?
 
A) They have LOWER payrates than Colgan does for the Q. They were mentioned NUMEROUS times on how we are 'in the middle' of pay for the Q.


B) They charge $65.00 dollars to apply which is nonrefundable
 
No website, no information on anything really. I think it is pretty tough to start an airline from scratch and will take a while.

Pay doesn't look to be the best by any means but for me it would work as long as the QOL isn't bad. All I need to know is that they are trying to keep the same corporate culture that they have at Frontier and I will be happy. Flight bennies on mainline and a Denver base will be good too.

I am really interested to see what cities they will put on the route map though. Hopefully lots of Colorado cities and towns.

Seggy, you have to think also that only 3 airlines will operate the Q. Horizon obviously the highest. I wouldn't expect a new airline to start out higher than Horizon. While the planes are new at Colgan, Colgan has been around for a while. I may be wrong, but I don't think the rates have been released actually. I think they are just talking about starting pay for a first year Captain right?

Application fees suck!
 
Colgan rates are out. FOs get the same if they're in the B1900 or the Q. The only difference are the CA rates, and it's actually more to fly a jet with 20 less people on board here at PCL. Diffence b/w year one and year five CA is a whopping $7/hr.
 
Lynx Aviation/ FrontierExpress
Airline Positions
CO
lynx@flyfrontier.com
1000 total, 500 multi

The captains they are hiring now are on a reduced 20 hours/month (so $50/hr x 20 hrs = $2000/month) salary until it gets up and going.
 
Timbuff10 said:
No website, no information on anything really. I think it is pretty tough to start an airline from scratch and will take a while.

Pay doesn't look to be the best by any means but for me it would work as long as the QOL isn't bad. All I need to know is that they are trying to keep the same corporate culture that they have at Frontier and I will be happy. Flight bennies on mainline and a Denver base will be good too.

I am really interested to see what cities they will put on the route map though. Hopefully lots of Colorado cities and towns.

Seggy, you have to think also that only 3 airlines will operate the Q. Horizon obviously the highest. I wouldn't expect a new airline to start out higher than Horizon. While the planes are new at Colgan, Colgan has been around for a while. I may be wrong, but I don't think the rates have been released actually. I think they are just talking about starting pay for a first year Captain right?

Application fees suck!
Click to expand...


Tim, I have a TON of respect for you. However, the Lynx operation isn't a 'new' airline. It is a shoot-off of Frontier, plane and simple. So saying it is from scratch is quite a stretch. There is a lot in place that Lynx will have access to from big brother Frontier. Jetblue, was started from scratch.

What is wrong with an airline offering the rates that Horizon does?

From my understanding, and I COULD be wrong here, but I am sure someone on here will fill me in, if I am out of line, but Republic was talking about bringing the Qs and the union negotiated a rate similar to the E-170s, any truth to that? Also does anyone have Chickentacos rates when they operated the Saabs?

Tim, have you read Flying the Line Vol. I and Vol. II? If you haven't let me know, and I'll send some free copies to you!
 
I asked a captain who used to fly a Saab with Shuttle America. He said the rates were only $1-2 more than Colgan pays.
 
Seggy said:
Tim, I have a TON of respect for you. However, the Lynx operation isn't a 'new' airline. It is a shoot-off of Frontier, plane and simple. So saying it is from scratch is quite a stretch. There is a lot in place that Lynx will have access to from big brother Frontier. Jetblue, was started from scratch.
Click to expand...


Seggy's got a point. Saying Lynx is new would be like saying Compass is new. They both have different budget's, sure. But they both have resources a truly new airline wouldn't have.
 
Someone enlighten me. What's so bad about Frontier buying Dash-8s and starting up a new wholly-owned regional feed with them? Is it non-union, crappy pay, or what?

Mike
 
Van_Hoolio said:
Someone enlighten me. What's so bad about Frontier buying Dash-8s and starting up a new wholly-owned regional feed with them? Is it non-union, crappy pay, or what?

Mike
Click to expand...

I think it's the crappy pay issue. Colgan's pay rates on the Q are low for flying a 70 seat aircraft, and Lynx's rates are even lower. I think management is banking on the fact that it's a TP to get away with lower rates. Fact is, it's a TP, which means it's probably not as expensive to operate, PLUS it's got 70 seats, which means more revenue than a CRJ-200. They're making money on both ends of the equation and not paying the pilots their fair share. One of the major factors that swung pilots to the union side of the fence over at Colgan were the horrid Q400 rates.
 
Well, hold on now guys. I think most are getting the impression that Lynx is just another arm of Frontier that has props. From what I have seen, this isn't completely the case. They have their own General Office on the other side of town, their own managers, office workers, HR, and IT departments. Mechanics, Pilots, and other Airport workers will all be seperate from Frontier too. None of the employees will be working for Frontier and Frontier has been bending over backwards to go this route too. Also the operating certificate (which I don't know if they even have yet) is seperate from Frontier.

The way I see it, the only thing that Lynx will be getting from big brother is feed from mainline and funding. With the funding though, what does it matter if that comes from big brother airline's investors or some oil company's investors that want to start an airline?

I do see your point though. Unless in 6 months you can go to Lynx.com and buy a ticket from DEN to Rapid City, SD, I would say you have a valid argument. I am betting to get a ticket, you will need to go through Frontier's reservation system/website.

I am kind of questioning what they are doing so far in starting this whole thing. The minimums for Captains seemed very high for the type of pay they are offering. I would think the pay should be in line with Horizon's pay if not even more considering those Captain's will have to be wooed to make the jump to the new airline.

The real kicker for me is the miniumums they are seeking for FOs. 3000TT/1500ME can not be in line with the pay they will probably be offering. I don't think the compensation for FOs is known yet but if Captain pay is $50/hr, I could see them only offering $20/hr or less for FO pay. Perhaps they are looking down the concourse at Great Lakes and using those rates to come up with Lynx rates. If so, they forgot to factor in the size of the plane along with those spinning things on the wings.

I am thinking I may be better off just sitting here waiting for the minumums to drop to what I currently have rather than flying and trying to get to their current minimums.

I am also wondering if they will have a union at Lynx?

I like the Lynx idea, I just hope they keep the Frontier philosophy.
 
I'm thinking their HR team is either trying to get people who are stuck at Mesa flying the Dash8 there, or the HR folks are coming from other larger jet operators and really out of touch on what is going on in the regional game these days.

500/50 to fly a jet at ASA, or 3000/1500 to fly a TP at Lynx? People who have 3000TT should be thinking about upgrading at their current airline rather than starting over at the bottom at an unknown?
 
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