Hello. I have a few questions about ORD as a base for a couple airlines as I live about an hour from it.
One of the regionals that have looked most appealing to me is republic and as you all know they have an ORD base. Although from what I have heard and read, republic is going to be closing their ORD base. Do any of you have any information on this because when I look at ORD, there are still a lot of republic flights going in and out of O’Hare.
My other question is with United and ORD as United is the major I hope to fly for. I know seniority always changes for bases but I was wondering if Chris could shed some light on the current seniority for ORD at United on the A320 and 737. Is it obtainable out of training or is it one of the more senior bases?
ORD is very senior for Republic. If they keep ORD as a base I doubt that will change anytime soon. When their MIA base was announced to close my buddies there said they wont lose much flying because they were told they’d be getting more in the North East. Take that with a great of salt though.
ORD for SkyWest should always be a decently Jr base. Pre-Covid I went from 100% to 60% seniority in 1 year. Only had reserve 1 month. Now at the end of 2yrs & with Covid my Seniority is at 45%. (This is CRJ, ERJ is a senior Aircraft & I’d be around 70-80% seniority).
The thing with Regionals and their bases is the Regionals are at the mercy of the Majors. Republic has an ORD base to support the Majors they fly for. Every few years those contracts expire. If the flying goes to another Regional they may no longer have a need for a base. This was very clearly demonstrated last year with Envoy. Envoy had a very large NY base for many years AA gave a good portion of their flying to PSA. Envoy closed the base.
As for United, Chris can and will answer more accurately but I don’t believe getting into ORD as a new narrow body pilot is a problem. It’s starting there and bypassing other opportunities that might be.
Like Adam said, things change so it depends on when youre expecting to interview / get hired.
But ya, SKW or Envoy probably most JR and reliable at ORD. Piedmont got more flying into ORD recently. Air Wisconsin, GoJet, are ones I can think of seeing at gates / hearing on the radios a decent amount.
For United, ORD is generally a middle of the road base on seniority. It is not as senior as Denver or Cleveland, but certainly more senior than EWR. I think most new hires have to do a stint in either EWR or SFO before getting back to ORD. This can range from a few months to a few years, it just really all depends on the hiring situation and how much growth the airline is having at the time. On the international side of things, ORD is a very senior base.
Chris obviously would know more than I do but it depends on aircraft. It sounds like DEN is very senior and it also sounds like for international flights, ORD is senior
What is a “senior base” is really quite hard to pin down. While the 777 might be really senior in ORD, the A320 isn’t. So it is hard to put one label on an entire base. That being said, I would say that IAH is more senior than ORD.