A prospective SkyWest Airlines first officer is weighing how to secure approximately two weeks of consecutive leave during the first year of employment to accommodate a destination wedding in Italy and an immediately following honeymoon. The pilot anticipates joining SkyWest in the near term and is uncertain whether junior reserve or line-holding status will realistically accommodate a multi-week international absence by the following May — a timeline that would represent roughly twelve months of seniority at the carrier.
At regional carriers like SkyWest, new-hire first officers typically enter a reserve pool and hold some of the lowest seniority numbers on their domicile's bidding list for the first one to three years, depending on hiring volume and attrition. Reserve schedules are governed by collective bargaining agreements and FAR Part 117 rest provisions, but scheduling flexibility is almost entirely seniority-driven. Most new-hire pilots find that bidding for extended consecutive days off — particularly two full weeks — during the initial year is functionally impossible through normal line bidding. The more realistic avenues include submitting a formal personal leave request or leave of absence (LOA) directly with crew scheduling, a process that many regionals accommodate on a case-by-case basis for significant life events. Airlines including SkyWest have historically been willing to approve short LOAs for weddings when the request is made well in advance and operational staffing permits, though approval is never guaranteed and is subject to the needs of the carrier.
The distinction between one week and two weeks is practically significant at the junior level. Securing a single week for the wedding ceremony and travel to Italy is achievable with sufficient advance notice and a scheduled LOA or trip drops via open time, particularly if the pilot has accrued any swap or trade currency with peers. Extending that to two consecutive weeks for a honeymoon increases the scheduling exposure considerably, since it requires either a lengthier LOA approval or successful manipulation of reserve days, days off, and trip trades — all of which become harder to execute reliably with low seniority. The pilot's own instinct that two weeks "would be pushing it" is well-calibrated to the operational realities of regional reserve life.
The broader context here touches on a persistent tension in regional aviation between aggressive hiring pipelines — which have drawn thousands of new pilots into carriers like SkyWest, Envoy, and Endeavor over the past several years — and the quality-of-life constraints imposed by junior seniority. While pilot shortages have modestly improved scheduling flexibility at some carriers through contract improvements and crew planning incentives, the fundamental seniority-based structure of Part 121 scheduling has not changed. Pilots entering regional carriers today are better compensated than any prior cohort, but the early-career scheduling constraints that have defined regional flying for decades remain largely intact. For this pilot, the most actionable path is to discuss the specific dates with SkyWest crew scheduling and HR as early as possible in the onboarding process, document the request formally, and build the itinerary around the more achievable single-week leave window while treating the honeymoon extension as aspirational pending approval.