The Air Canada OTS thread

[FL320]

Best bet for OTS applicant now is apply at Transat and failing that Jazz.

Calling Transat ‘best’ right now is a bit of a gamble, no? I’d have thought the surest thing would remain Jazz, as it has been for at least the last decade from what I’ve seen.

Like Jean Pierre said it’s the best bet - but still a gamble. However at this stage, chances are at 99.9%. The only ones who are still denying the fact that the deal will be finalized are a few scared individuals; but this won’t change the outcome. We can clearly see that both airlines are moving forward behind the scene.

[Dry Guy]

Seems like Cathay is the pipeline to AC these days.

[iflyroads]

Calls/offers gone out for Oct 21st gs

[lepechou]

Calls/offers gone out for Oct 21st gs

Any more info ? Size of the GS ? Jazz mainly or OTS mainly ?

[FL-280]

Little birdies are saying 14. Mostly OTS... (the ots part is a guess)

[Transition9er2]

14 new hires, wow. Thought it would be much larger given the 800+ open spots to fill by next summer.

10 last class, 14 for Oct 21... is the Transat deal maybe playing into these numbers or is it the Max?

[Mr. North]

I highly doubt Transat will have any effect on hiring for some time. If I had to take an educated guess from the comfort of my Chesterfield I would suggest AC's training capacity is the limiting factor. The biggest bid in decades closed last month which saw a ton of people move around. So courses and sims for all of them, add on 50+ initials, and recurrent training for everyone else. I'd say the training department is maxed right out.

[iflyroads]

I highly doubt Transat will have any effect on hiring for some time. If I had to take an educated guess from the comfort of my Chesterfield I would suggest AC's training capacity is the limiting factor. The biggest bid in decades closed last month which saw a ton of people move around. So courses and sims for all of them, add on 50+ initials, and recurrent training for everyone else. I'd say the training department is maxed right out.

Correct. And historically we have restarted hiring mostly during the fall. Meaning we also have a lot of reccurents and line checks going on, again taking more training slots. Sims being used all over the world these days to try to keep up.

[Captain Kirkk]

Just an FYI for the new ones coming with previous wide body FO time... the last class consisted of 10 people, 3 of which had 777 time from overseas carriers.

Those 3 were FORCED out of seniority onto the 787 as FO's... don't think that has happened for quite sometime... surprised it is even allowed.

Remaining slots were 4 767 Rouge and 3 777 RP.

[Victory]

The company can assign you any position it needs to as a new hire. They try to respect seniority when possible but your first bid is not a real bid. Right now they need WB FOs.

[Sharklasers]

Just an FYI for the new ones coming with previous wide body FO time... the last class consisted of 10 people, 3 of which had 777 time from overseas carriers.

Those 3 were FORCED out of seniority onto the 787 as FO's... don't think that has happened for quite sometime... surprised it is even allowed.

Remaining slots were 4 767 Rouge and 3 777 RP.

That has happened nearly every course for the last 3 years.
Only candidates with transport category jet time are able to train on the YVR 767 sim and untill last year the 737 Max sims as they were only certified to level C.
The company and association are both very clear that on your first course the company can and will assign you to whatever spot is open if need dictates.

[FL-280]

The first ever new hire to get assigned a widebody mainline position on 777 or 787 was just a few weeks ago. so no, it hasnt been going on for three years. The 767 jet time requirement is something completely different.

[Captain Kirkk]

Correct, and the 737 MAX and 767 was due to sim requirements.

This is totally new.

[PostmasterGeneral]

Poor fellas... They’re gonna be on the bottom of that list for a LONG time!

[landshark]

Not if more new hires keep coming below.

[tallyho]

The reduction in class sizes is mostly due to the continuing MAX return to service delay. AC was confident it would be back this year but as that now looks nigh on impossible they have slowed the hiring considerably. Maybe Transat is a factor but not yet. As someone said its quite a long time until those guys will be AC pilots.

[skyhighh]

in that case, it may be a good idea to bring the "pool" back instead of letting pilots in limbo for months at a time. I have quite a few friends that have done interview in the last 4 months and still don't know if it's a PFO or not.

[Oxi]

It's all how you score, they probably didn't do as well

[21cdnflyer]

Are guys not following up?

[Daniel Cooper]

What would they do differently if they were told they were in the pool though?
Telling people they are in the pool is a nightmare from an HR standpoint. In the past people were placed in the pool and thought it meant they were hired and they just had to wait for a start date. Then a couple of years later they were told to apply again. I guess some were pissed they just wasted 2 years of their career instead of advancing it.
It can be gut wrenching waiting to hear if you got hired but being in the pool isn't hired either. AC could reduce all 737 pilots tomorrow and hiring would stop for a long time.

[Ironman2909]

No reduction in sight on the MAX.... don't know who comes up with ideas like that. Once the RTS is completed, the MAX is going to be one the safest plane to fly (watch the marketing) after all the overwatch over it's recert. If you think AC will pay for any of it's maintenance for the next few decades.....CR will have made a deal with Boeing and the MAX is going to be a money printing machine.

The RTS is going to take all the training spots in the sim and the planes for line-indoc for quite some time. I would say at least til' next summer if not more.... You don't necessarily want to train guys on the ''bus'' and then restart parking them at the end of next year.

Not suprised by the slow down of candidates on PIT courses.....training system is already maxed out.....and Christmas vacation is lurking ahead. Don't forget that it's been a really busy summer at the YYZ training center. Usually summer is slow at the training building in YYZ. The company needs to give a breether to the instructors.

[Transition9er2]

Anymore calls go out today for the Oct 21 class?

T

[skyhighh]

What would they do differently if they were told they were in the pool though?
Telling people they are in the pool is a nightmare from an HR standpoint. In the past people were placed in the pool and thought it meant they were hired and they just had to wait for a start date. Then a couple of years later they were told to apply again. I guess some were pissed they just wasted 2 years of their career instead of advancing it.
It can be gut wrenching waiting to hear if you got hired but being in the pool isn't hired either. AC could reduce all 737 pilots tomorrow and hiring would stop for a long time.

Fair enough but why doing so many interviews if candidates end up in the pool for a year or two? That's just a waste of resources from an HR standpoint. I guess it could be because we never really know what will happen in the future (there was supposed to be a class of 50 every 3 weeks and now it got reduced to 10-15 pilots every 3 weeks). But I don't know, I feel that somewhere someone is messing up and leaving the candidates in limbo isn't fair. Waiting for 3-4 months to then receive a PFO letter when they could have moved somewhere else and start their seniority earlier...I'm sure we can do better for these guys and girls.

[Victory]

If they could be somewhere else starting their seniority do it. Never put your career on hold waiting for HR. They are notoriously heartless. The one exception I guess would be Express. You couldn't accept a position there if you were maybe in the pool at AC because that would kick you out of it.

[Daniel Cooper]

Are people actually being PFO'd after 4 months of waiting or is hearing nothing for that long tantamount to being told you're in the pool?