Captain to Captain

Can a Captain at a Major move to captain at a different airline or would they have to go back to FO first?

Garrett,

They would restart at the bottom of the seniority list, so as a first officer. Airline seniority is with the individual company, not the industry.

Chris

Garrett,

Airline to airline you have to start over as an FO.

Intra-airline you could transition from aircraft to aircraft and keep your captain seat.

Tory

Garrett,
A weird exception to this rule, right now a few regionals and some large part 135 operations are hiring “street captains”. So thats hiring right in to the left seat. Not common, but it’s happening now at some select places. You definitely won’t find that at the majors though.

-Hannah

Garrett,

The others covered this well but this highlights the reason you want to choose the right airline because you’ll probably be there forever.

Adam