Hey Guys, let's put an end to this pity party!
I'm about ten numbers from being furloughed, but I still have faith in the industry. It will turn around. Those who stick it out will be rewarded.
A lot of people think that the furloughs are mainly due to the company taking a bad situation and trying to use it to force concessions on the pilots. The fact that Mesa's TA pays their 70-seat CRJ captains about the same as our 50-seat guys doesn't help matters.
Frankly, I believe that our woes will last only as long as UAL can delay confirming our contract. As the press release states, we are getting paid at 2002 rates and that is hurting our bottom line. As soon as the contract is confirmed, I feel that we will be able to secure financing for new airplanes and will go right back to growing.
Besides, if I'm wrong, we'll always be able to get a job at Mesa, Chatuaqua, or Trans States.
The bottom line is that aviation is cyclical. It will come back.
Similarly to Doug, I worked and flew for 12 years before getting an airline job. Now that I've gotten a taste of flying the big stuff (well, okay, a Jetstream, but relatively speaking it seems big to me
), I really don't want to go back to an office job.