What has Envoy's attrition been then last few months?
8% of the pilot group left this year so far. This month accounts for about a quarter of that.
Why are those pilots leaving when they have a flow?
Pilots leaving are mostly senior FOs and junior CA, with 3-4 years left to flow. Currently there is a certain financial advantage to leaving at that point.
Where are they going?
Delta, United, AA, Spirit, Frontier, ATI, Atlas, part 135s, FAA, Breeze, Allegiant. Bulk to established LCC and cargo.
What is the plan to address Envoy's pay and benefits disparity versus places like Endeavor?
Supposedly the company realizes that this needs to be addressed (not necessarily Endeavor- people aren't leaving here to go there). Current bandaid - sign on bonus. That will do nothing for the midseniority retention and if the trend continues we will be back in the direct entry captain realm in a year. Whether effective measures are undertaken to fix that is TBD
What are the plans to address the work rules and scheduling issues not found at other regionals?
There are both good and bad things in work rules here that are not found at other regionals. Long call reserve (lack thereof) is being negotiated right now in the typical fashion. That's about it. Oh and we had 300% pay for pretty much everyone this month (will be only the short staffed fleet/seat going forward). Making $170+ an hour as a regional FO felt pretty good. A fella could get used to that.
Besides the flow, why is it worth it for someone to go to Envoy? (E-175s is not an answer). All of these are serious questions, especially this one. In 2017 I had offers from Envoy and a bunch of others. I didn't choose Envoy for pay, 401k, benefits, work-rules, and scheduling concerns.
Flow, when it works, benefits the entire pilot group. It took me 2 years to get to the same relative seniority here as it took a friend at ExpressJet 7 years.
Pay got bumped up a bit since 2017. Not nearly enough, in my book, but it did.
401k - it is what it is.
Benefits? Like what? Health etc? Yeah, okayish. Nonrev - same priority as the mainline is pretty hard to beat, as far as other regionals are concerned.
Work rule and scheduling - you'll need to be more specific. For some not flying to the limits Mesa style is a good thing, for some bad.
There is obviously nothing good about 8 hr airport appreciation days when they happen, but again, what were your specific concerns?
There are operational benefits to being AAG like the performance apps (plus holdover times app etc) vs paper, wifi for jepp and wsi in flight as of this past week (finally), not being treated by the station people like 2nd grade citizen (for the most part) etc, and there are negatives, like leftover flight file etc because a cost center can do it when a FFD contract carrier can't.
Overall someone else put it nicely recently - we are American when it suits their narrative, other times we aren't. But there are certain benefits whether a newhire intends to hang around for the flow or not.
Address those questions honestly and seriously and enjoy coming into the fold of this community just a little bit. Don't, and it's more of the same for you unfortunately.
