2018 Pilot Hiring
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Re: 2018 Pilot Hiring
I had to wait 3 months between my interview and and getting hired in 2015. Don't lose hope !
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Re: 2018 Pilot Hiring
Is commuting possible at Sunwing? I know they have seasonal bases during the winter but what about the summer?
Re: 2018 Pilot Hiring
In the Summer you have yul yyz and yvr. Of course there is also the European bases. To commute is possible but it could be painfull when you're junior.
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Re: 2018 Pilot Hiring
Commuting is definitely possible at Sunwing and quite a few of our pilots do it successfully. Sunwing has jumpseat travel agreements with a number of airlines including Westjet and Air Canada so cheap standby travel is available to all of our pilots. When hired at Sunwing a pilot will be assigned a permanent base in either Montreal or Toronto. From that initial permanent base assignment non Montreal or Toronto residents have several options...
Winter Season:
In the winter Sunwing operates seasonal bases in Vancouver, Calgary, Winnipeg and Quebec City. These bases are awarded on seniority plus residency followed by seniority. As an example if you are a Winnipeg resident & last on the seniority list you will be awarded a Winnipeg seasonal base over a Toronto resident who is first on the seniority list however if there are only 10 available spots in Winnipeg and 11 Winnipeg residents, the last person will not be able to hold the base. So if you're a commuter living in one of these cities you'll be able to live at home for the winter. The only place where this may not be true is the Vancouver base on the Captain's side as there are already more Vancouver residents than spots.
If you are not a resident in one of the winter seasonal base cities and are able to hold the base on your seniority Sunwing considers you as a 'domestically deployed pilot'. As a result the company will provide you with a one bedroom apartment at the seasonal base, a rental car and $1500/month in per diem to assist in the commute. Most commuting pilots at Sunwing who don't live in one of the seasonal bases choose this option and in fact some Toronto and Montreal residents choose this option for the winter as well as a way to explore a new part of the country.
Of course you can always just go the traditional way as well and commute to your permanent base in Toronto or Montreal using standby travel just like every other airline commuter does.
Summer Season:
For the summer season, commuters have three options. They can bid to do a European deployment, choose to remain at the permanent base they've been assigned (Toronto or Montreal) or do a combination of the two. Most commuters or people who live in one of the winter seasonal bases tend to bid the six month European deployments as they would rather be paid to live in Europe versus having to commute to Toronto or to Montreal on their own dime.
For pilots who do not bid to go over to Europe and who have been flying out of a seasonal base for the winter they simply slot back in to their permanent base for the summer months. (Typically May 1 - Oct 1). The only word of warning I have is the company reserves the right to force people to deploy to Europe for six weeks in order of reverse seniority if they can't fill all of the required European deployment spots through the voluntary bid. That being said, I wouldn't worry about it too much as it's been years since that happened and typically is more of an issue on the Captain side of things as FOs are excited for Europe and the money makes more of a difference
The other option for summer is to bid a 3 month deployment to Europe and then commute to your permanent base of Toronto or Montreal for the other three months. This option is popular for people who either can't or don't want to be away in Europe for six months. Commuters who choose this option typically try to bank their European per diems and then use them to pay for the cost of their commute for the other three months.
Hope that helps. In terms of bidding a commutable schedule, Sunwing uses seniority bidding but from the people I talk to it's normally still fairly easy to build a commuting schedule.
Re: 2018 Pilot Hiring
Great post thanks for those informations. so if you live in YUL or YYZ, you can expect to be based at either base. Can the company force you to be based at a seasonal base during the winter?
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Re: 2018 Pilot Hiring
As a quick update, latest I've heard through the grapevine is hiring is now complete for the summer season. Expect more groundschools in early summer for the 2018/19 winter season.
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Re: 2018 Pilot Hiring
Rumour is that the next GS is in June. Any truth to this?
Re: 2018 Pilot Hiring
I don't know everything for sure, but I haven't heard such a thing. Typically they will plan GS at the end of the Summer to be fully staffed for the season.
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Re: 2018 Pilot Hiring
What is it like being based in Europe for the summer? Is accommodation paid for? Same pay and working conditions? Do you have to convert your license to a European equivalent or does it not matter since you'd be flying a Canadian registered plane? I imagine there would have to be some additional training for the differences between flying in Europe vs. North America too, right? It definitely sounds like a cool experience!
Re: 2018 Pilot Hiring
The deployments are quite popular. I am very bummed I won't be going to Europe this summer and my wife even more so.Speedalive wrote: ↑Wed May 16, 2018 1:34 pm What is it like being based in Europe for the summer? Is accommodation paid for? Same pay and working conditions? Do you have to convert your license to a European equivalent or does it not matter since you'd be flying a Canadian registered plane? I imagine there would have to be some additional training for the differences between flying in Europe vs. North America too, right? It definitely sounds like a cool experience!
We get our regular pay plus quite a significant amount of money in "allocation" which is tax free (per diem if you will). The rates differ depending on the contract you are working on. Some places you will be provided accommodations and a car with less allocation and some places you have to fend for yourself but you get significantly more allocation. We more less work under our own working conditions unless a European regulation doesn't allow it (ie duty times).
We only fly C reg airplanes so no issues with licensing.
This year the company reinstated a short groundschool for crews that are deploying. It is the first one in a number of years. Although some things are done somewhat differently across the pond, it isn't rocket science and with a little bit of self study you can figure it out.
Hope this helps.
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Re: 2018 Pilot Hiring
There's rumors for upgrades in Fall. So if this is true, there should be GS as well.
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Re: 2018 Pilot Hiring
That sounds like a pretty good deal! Might have to throw in an application someday When you do these deployments, are you considered to be an employee of the airline that contracts Sunwing's planes? Like do you get staff travel benefits with the contracting airline, or do you have to pay full fare to do some travelling on your days off?ant_321 wrote: ↑Thu May 17, 2018 12:21 am The deployments are quite popular. I am very bummed I won't be going to Europe this summer and my wife even more so.
We get our regular pay plus quite a significant amount of money in "allocation" which is tax free (per diem if you will). The rates differ depending on the contract you are working on. Some places you will be provided accommodations and a car with less allocation and some places you have to fend for yourself but you get significantly more allocation. We more less work under our own working conditions unless a European regulation doesn't allow it (ie duty times).
We only fly C reg airplanes so no issues with licensing.
This year the company reinstated a short groundschool for crews that are deploying. It is the first one in a number of years. Although some things are done somewhat differently across the pond, it isn't rocket science and with a little bit of self study you can figure it out.
Hope this helps.
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