Stuck at the Regionals: The Downside to Flow Agreements

There has been a common hiring dynamic at the airlines for years before the existence of ubiquitous flow agreements.

Sam Weigel

Friday, October 06, 2023 at 04:15 PM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

A pilot named Karla strategically joined a regional airline with a flow-through agreement, aiming for her dream major airline, but this path has unexpectedly hindered her advancement.
Despite her target major airline hiring rapidly, it prioritizes pilots from outside its associated regional, leaving Karla stuck in a slow flow-through process.
Her attempts to use low-cost carriers as a quick stepping stone have failed because her clear long-term goal for the major airline makes her an undesirable short-term hire.
The article serves as a cautionary tale, advising aspiring pilots to reconsider joining regional airlines directly tied to their ultimate major airline goal, especially those with flow-through agreements, as these can become "velveteen handcuffs" during strong hiring cycles.

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I’ve been trading texts with a good friend of mine—an airline pilot we’ll call “Scott”— regarding the flying career of his 27-year-old daughter, “Karla.” Ever since she decided to start flying in her late teens, Karla has had the goal of eventually working for Scott’s airline and would ideally like to fly a trip with him before he retires in a few years.

To this end, she attended a university with a popular collegiate aviation program that has an official relationship with said airline and whose alumni are well represented in its ranks. While in school, she took a semester to do a flight operations internship with Scott’s airline. And after instructing for a few years to build her flight time, Karla was hired at her dream airline’s wholly owned regional airline, which has a flow-through agreement in place by which its r pilots advance to the mainline carrier in seniority order, albeit at a metered rate.