Regional airlines, plans to go major

Hey Tory,

I’ve been doing some research about the Envoy Cadet Program and given the volatility of the regional industry the flow seems too good to be true. Hopefully this isn’t the case because it’s something I’m interested in, but I was wondering why you say “it isn’t a guarantee”. I tend to agree to a certain extent and think Envoy will do everything they can to keep their pilots within the company if the shortage of qualified applicants keeps them from finding replacements. I’ve seen on other message boards (so take with a grain of salt) that they haven’t been flowing as many as they should by intentionally keeping the numbers low. I know they can manipulate the flow to last longer than the advertised 6 years, I just don’t understand how they can advertise a guaranteed job at AA and then go back on it assuming you don’t have any off the field issues.

All in all the program seems too good to be true and I’d love to hear anyone’s input on it. I mean, if you’re telling me I can join Envoy and have guaranteed flow to AA in 6 years everyone would be rushing to give ATP their money with that kind of insurance.

Luke,

If you’re looking for guarantees you might want to consider a different career. AA can hire who they want, when they want, or not at all. Yes there’s a “guaranteed flow through” but there’s a whole lot of fine print not the least of which says they will take X% from Envoy based on the total number they hire. Price of oil goes up, economy tanks, another 9/11 and things come to a grinding halt. There also is no “certain extent”. If Envoy can’t maintain proper staffing levels AA is not going to shoot themselves in the foot by taking more of their own pilots when they can grab them from elsewhere. Flows aren’t bad and if it helps get someone in that’s great but I would definitely not count on it. I can give you the names of dozens of Continental Express pilots who thought they were going to flow-thru and never did. Many of them in fact found themselves on the street when the Continental guys flowed back and pushed them out.

Adam

What Adam said.

Thanks for the quick response guys. I’ve been reading on here for the the past hour and it seems like a great resource.

I realize guarantees are hard to come by in any profession and AA can hire whoever they want when they want. However, from everything I’ve read they’re behind the curve more so than other airlines and will be doing a lot of hiring in the foreseeable future. I know they won’t flow themselves into disaster, but barring any economic issues, do you see the flow working in the timeline they advertise if they can continue to recruit new pilots to Envoy? I know that’s a big if.

I’m not looking for a guarantee, but I want the next best thing in an unpredictable industry with a ~$75k entry fee.

With the way things are going right now, I think 6 years at a regional is
a good estimate.

Tory