SkyWest "Charters
- Thread starter KLB
- Start date
zmiller4
Well-Known Member
More like “learn to fly a plane instead of buying your way to a jet.”
zmiller4
Well-Known Member
This will be interesting.
Skywest was one of the few regionals that never dropped mins below 1000. I heard rumors of super well connected folks getting at least interviews prior to that but don’t know anyone who was…this would be a really big shift for them.
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It will have much more legroom
scooter2525
Very well Member
Back when I was working on my PPL, OO wouldn’t look at you unless you had 1kTT and 100ME. At minimum. Nuts how they were skimming the cream to now reaching to the bottom of the barrel.
ZapBrannigan
If it ain’t a Boeing, I’m not going. No choice.
When i was a kid Piedmont and Allegheny were the best commuters out there. Dash 8 FO required a minimum of 1500TT and 500ME, but competitive was >2500TT.
The 2nd tier commuters, Chautauqua, Commutair, Pinnacle (Express One), Mesaba, and a few others required 1500TT and 500 ME plus a $10,000 check paid to FSI.
Cherokee_Cruiser
Bronteroc
No. Because when I was a student, I had one of those CFIs. A complete ass. Couldn’t give two craps about actual instruction. Made it clear he was only doing this to get his hrs for Skywest and would GTFO. Very bad personality and a nightmare to work with. All the while I’m thinking, wtf? I’m the one paying for his services. So I went to the main front desk, the owner was there along with the scheduling lady. And I made it clear that for the rest of my instrument course, I want another CFI or I walk.
I never flew with that CFI again.
I finished up and stayed in touch with my good CFI. He told me that original CFI interviewed with Skywest and busted it.
Cool story, bro.
msmspilot
Well-Known Member
Or medicine.
Stone Cold
Well-Known Member
Don’t talk about me without tagging me, dang it.
Sculprit
Well-Known Member
Up until recently you could interview with however many hours so long as you were projected to get to your needed 750/1000/1500 within 6 months.
Infact several interviews I conducted the candidates did not even have the cplme rating. The company was okay with it as long as the candidate got their 25...yes 25 hours of multi time before their class date.
zmiller4
Well-Known Member
Barf.
Edit: I respect skw for holding out with standards through the JetU, gulfstream era.
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N826AW
Well-Known Member
You can say the same for any regional with a cadet program, not just Skywest.
Karnage
I-am-a-pirate. I do not need credentials!
The problem SkyWest faces isn't about getting FOs. Even with the ATP rule their cup doeth runeth over. Their problem is Captains, or more specifically, lack of FOs with enough hours to upgrade to captain and a lack of captains willing to stay beyond the minimum number of TPIC hours needed to get hired elsewhere. FO's can't get enough hours to upgrade because they're so top heavy on FO's that no one flies a lot and those that do upgrade find out how terrible the quality of life is as a junior captain there that they run away to whatever LCC will take them. Then there's the whole metering issue with the guaranteed interview program that guys would rather bail ASAP to anyplace that will take them as it's a faster way to AA/AS/DL/UA than sticking it out at OO.
As much as it has the potential to go down the path of hiring wet commercial certificates for FO positions, it's not the problem being faced by OO at present. The main goal is to be able to keep staffing planes with CAs who would otherwise have had to retire as they hit age 65 or if they're lucky guys who retired early elsewhere and wanna keep flying. The EAS flying is all low frequency (2x a day at most) and depending on how they schedule the crews can eat up a lot of time that could otherwise have been spent doing more flying. I can see some FOs with less than the full 1500 (or whatever reduced mins they qualify for an ATP with) getting hired. But the EAS flights are all so short in length and at such low frequency that they will struggle to keep FOs who are looking to build time and move on. If they can keep the schedules of mid day turns and doing standups on the overnights they might attract some of the more "career FO" type folks who did the job for the benefits as a part time side gig, but that would just decimate the ranks of their recently forced upgrades further exacerbating the CA staffing on the "SkyWest Mainline" side of the house.
Of course, the more logical solution would have been for OO to actually address the serious deficiencies in the QOL for junior captains and actually do something to encourage people to not bail the instant they had the time.
As much as it has the potential to go down the path of hiring wet commercial certificates for FO positions, it's not the problem being faced by OO at present. The main goal is to be able to keep staffing planes with CAs who would otherwise have had to retire as they hit age 65 or if they're lucky guys who retired early elsewhere and wanna keep flying. The EAS flying is all low frequency (2x a day at most) and depending on how they schedule the crews can eat up a lot of time that could otherwise have been spent doing more flying. I can see some FOs with less than the full 1500 (or whatever reduced mins they qualify for an ATP with) getting hired. But the EAS flights are all so short in length and at such low frequency that they will struggle to keep FOs who are looking to build time and move on. If they can keep the schedules of mid day turns and doing standups on the overnights they might attract some of the more "career FO" type folks who did the job for the benefits as a part time side gig, but that would just decimate the ranks of their recently forced upgrades further exacerbating the CA staffing on the "SkyWest Mainline" side of the house.
Of course, the more logical solution would have been for OO to actually address the serious deficiencies in the QOL for junior captains and actually do something to encourage people to not bail the instant they had the time.
Sculprit
Well-Known Member
I agree with everything you said. Facts on the last part.
SrFnFly227
Well-Known Member
So after reading the post above, could this be about getting low time Captains rather than FOs? What would the min flight time be for Captain under this operation?
Minuteman
I HAVE STRONG OPINIONS ABOUT AUTOMOTIVE LIGHTING!
I've been wondering how these flights will be marketed. Like, I wonder if a 121 carrier can advertise entire itineraries from Los Angeles to Middlebury. Or if the ticket has to be bought from the charter outfit and they buy capacity on from a 121 carrier. Or what?
Sculprit
Well-Known Member
So far it’s been really senior folk. They’ve offered positions to captains who are retiring from the 121 side of the airline as well as individuals who retired from the majors that for some weird reason still want to fly airliners.
Karnage
I-am-a-pirate. I do not need credentials!
The answer is a convoluted maybe. Part 380 charters require ticket funds be held in escrow until the flight occurs vs the usual process where the airline takes your money and just puts it as a liability on the balance sheet until you fly. There’s also ownership issues that make selling tickets across partners tricky. JetBlue manages it with JSX because they have a partial ownership stake. Contour was supposed to have interlining with AA but is way behind (though part of that may be IT issues at Contour).
SkyWest has in the past simply run their EAS routes via DL/UA’s booking systems but with the escrow/holdback requirements it’s doubtful they can just piggy back on mainline and will instead have to handle their own reservations. If they go with a more robust reservations system like Sabre or SHARES or Amadeus they will probably be able to manage through check-in even if they have to sell separate tickets podunk-hub and hub-elsewhere but if they cheap out and go with one of the newer less traditional options they’ll be facing more issues with trying to make it worth flying vs driving somewhere with actual codeshare service.