I currently live in Nashville, Tennessee and plan on working for endeavor air or psa airlines one day. If i work for endeavor I plan on upgrading one day to Delta and if i work at psa airline I plan on upgrading to American Airlines. This is because both Endeavor/Delta are based in Atlanta and Psa/American are based in Charlotte NC.
However I did want to commute when i’m still a regional pilot until i upgrade to the majors one day. So I would be going from Nashville to Atlanta or Nashville to Charlotte. Until I get promoted to a first officer in the majors that’s when i plan on moving states.
Do you have any advice or what the lifestyle would look like in those couple of years?
First I’d like to point out it sounds like you’re counting on a flow to a Major. While they’re nice to have in your back pocket, I wouldn’t completely count on it. There are any number of reasons the flow might be cancelled or you might simply change your mind as to who you want to fly for. What I’m saying is there’s no reason you couldn’t do PSA to Delta or Endeavor to American or anywhere else.
As for what your life is going to look like commuting it won’t be great but you’ll be fine. The majority of pilots (particularly at Regionals) commute and all make it work. Fortunately either is a short flight and you should have a few flights a day to get you to work. You will lose days off and there will be times you won’t get home on your last day. You will also have to find a crashpad or apt for sitting reserve or again when you get stuck or the day prior of you’ve got an early start.
It’s really not something to be stressing about at this stage. Many pilots commute and while no one recommends it they all survive the experience. Look at Chris, he’s been commuting his whole career.
While it’s good to have a plan, I’m with Adam, it doesn’t make much sense to be committing to such a rigid plan this early on. Flows are nice, but so is having options.
When you’re new, at any airline, you can expect to be on reserve, working weekends, and inefficient trips. Doing that while also commuting adds an extra layer of inconvenience to the mix because you may need to commute to base a day early or you may need to stay an extra night after your trip if your trip ends to late to catch a flight home. You could also just have to commute to base to sit reserve and never get assigned any flying, but that depends on how early your callout time is and how far you live from base.
I live in Nashville and want to commute to Atlanta.
It’s an average of a 54 minute flight to get there.
Do pilot have to go through check in, security, long lines, etc? or do they have a higher priority to make it to the flight on time?
I will strongly stress that commuting is not a good idea. It is not a function of how long the flight is, but all of the variable that go into it. You cannot just show up in your base a few minutes before your scheduled trip starts. You often need to leave one, or even two, extra flights to make sure that you can get to work. Sometimes this means coming in the night before. Throw a snow storm into it and you are looking at really coming in early. Many people spend several years, if not longer, at a regional. I would really encourage you to think of moving to your base.
Crewmembers generally have access to expedited screening, but it does not save that much time.
Androu,
Commuting is not ideal. If it’s absolutely not feasible for you to move, than you take on the inconvenience on a day to day basis. It’s a choice. Make sure you’re making it based on the right reasons. I commute for now and some days it’s a piece of cake and all works well. Other days, I’m exhausted and frustrated before I even start one leg of my trip. You just never know what you’re going to get. So much is out of your control but your expected to be there at your report time no matter what. It’s on you to make the appropriate amount of backup plans to ensure getting there on time. Anyway with all this being said, keep your options open! You can go to any regional and end up at any major! Research them all and see what priorities are most important to you. I’m sure what could be important to you now can change in two years when you’re starting to apply.
-Hannah