Wow. There have been some developments.
Several weeks ago, my good
friend and fellow pilot, Will Donaca, called me from his new airline pilot job
at Atlantic Coast Airlines
(ACA). He and I flew together at
Ameriflight last year and he continued to fly there after I left for
Continental Express. Well, early in
June he was finally able to move up in his career and was hired by ACA, one of
the few regional airlines currently hiring and expanding. He is currently in training to fly a
regional jet.
So he calls up one day and
says, “Dude! Give me your resume and
I’ll walk it in for you with a letter of recommendation.” And I said something to the effect of
“Dude!” and promptly e-mailed him my resume.
He walked it into the ACA pilot recruiting department two weeks
ago. The very next day they called me
to schedule an interview.
I interviewed with them last
Friday in Dulles, Virginia near Washington DC.
The interview was similar to others I had been through, and I left
feeling fairly good about the whole thing, kind of like I felt about the Comair
interview six months ago.
The difference was this: ACA
hired me! I just found out this
afternoon. I did a small dance.
ACA flies primarily as
United Express on the east coast which is what you would see painted on their
planes. Their job is to feed the larger
jets at United Airlines’ hubs in Washington DC and Chicago. They currently have a fleet of 123 aircraft
consisting of 62 Canadair Regional Jets, 30 Dornier 328JETs, and 31 Jetstream
turboprops. The expansion is entirely
in the Canadair
Regional Jets (CRJs), and hopefully that is what I will be trained to
fly. The CRJ is very similar to the Embraer regional jet that I was
trained to fly last summer at COEX. 50
seats, 450-knot cruising speed, and operates up to 41,000 feet. Nice.
ACA has a very good
reputation, happy pilots, and is similar in size and scope to Continental
Express. Not really a step up or a step
down from COEX. The travel benefits are
better (fly anywhere for free on United Airlines) and ACA’s bases are an easier
commute from Las Vegas if we decide to stay here. They’re planning to put me in class in a month or so but I don’t
know what aircraft type yet, which will be a major factor in my decision.
My decision: it’s a very
tough one. The same day I interviewed
at ACA, COEX announced that they would be putting out the tentative recall
schedule in the next two weeks. There
is finally light at the end of that tunnel.
I still think it will be six months before I actually return to COEX,
but it could be sooner. The one major
advantage at COEX is their growth plans are much more aggressive. That means building seniority more quickly,
which is absolutely everything in this business (like who makes captain sooner,
getting off reserve faster, and who gets furloughed when times are bad,
etc.) Of course, the major advantage of
ACA is I get to start NOW. But this is
a long-term decision, and I don’t know if giving up COEX, a very solid regional
airline, is worth getting back to the airlines 4-6 months sooner. A lot of the decision will be on what
aircraft I am assigned to at ACA. I am
unlikely to give up the jet at COEX to fly a turboprop for ACA now that I know
recall is around the corner, but odds are I’ll fly a jet for ACA anyway.
I’ll know my aircraft
assignment and class date at ACA in a couple of weeks. For now, they’re telling me early September,
but that could move up at a moment’s notice if they have an earlier
vacancy. Since I will also know my
approximate recall date to COEX in a couple of weeks, I’ll use all that
information to make my decision. Hard
to do at this point. This decision will
affect my career in a huge way since I will probably be at one of these
airlines for at least the next 5 years.
In the meantime, I’ll just
keep flight instructing and try to keep these developments from becoming to big
of a distraction while I’m up flying.
Obviously, this is all very
good news, but life is much more complicated now than it was two weeks
ago. My position of having two airline
jobs to choose from is very enviable in these current times, so complaining
about having to make a decision between them is probably pretty lame! Still, any input
is appreciated.
