mijbil wrote: ↑Fri Aug 07, 2020 12:57 pm
That's a win-win-win for everyone involved!
Glad to hear things are starting up, hope it won't lead to a knee jerk reaction of closing everything down again when infection numbers start to rise.
It's not exactly a win for the Sunwing pilots since we are still sitting on our tails. Technically we are employed by WG, under the CEWS program and are all listed as "OFL" or offline - except for management. CEWS is basically a slightly scaled down year 1 F/O wage with no benefits but is company wide for the pilots. It's better than CERB but not as good as being back to work. Bringing even a few senior pilots back to go through sims, get requalified etc would start the ball rolling. I have no idea (other than money) as to why they (WG management) have not recalled even a few people. The current CBA doesn't have any provision (scope clause) for this situation. Who would have predicted an all pilot layoff scenario?
Assuming there is no radcal Aussie style shutdown due to a second wave, and assuming that Justin removes the 14 day quarantine then things may just come roaring back. Good luck ploughing everyone through sim in October if that happens.
The fact that travel is re-starting is a good thing I agree. Pity it's not the WG pilots doing the flying.
Really? The amount it would cost to re-train even a few and pull a couple of aircraft out of storage would be huge compared to what gains we would get out of it. I doubt that the number of people on those flights even filled an A320. You probably had WG,AC,TS, selloff vacations customers in there. I highly doubt that at this stage any one company has enough people to do this...so its more of a i'll scratch your back - you scratch mine kind of deal. What happens to our west coast passengers? Maybe we fly 1 plane once a week between YVR and YYZ - right now we probably couldn't fill that either. So with AC and WJ flying right now - it makes perfect sense to use one carrier to move everyone's passengers until it picks up to the point you could fill a couple of planes with people.
At least it's money coming in that can keep us afloat a little while longer, and if these people have little to no problems - it will just encourage more people to go.
We do need to get rid of the 14 day quarantine after coming home. If we can get the safe corridors set up, or when the 14 day restriction is lifted, or if more people say "screw it" and just start travelling - I'm sure business will take off and we will get back to flying, but until then - it's foolish to try.
I still don't know why your not getting basic benefits though