Shutting down most of the airline

[CaptDukeNukem]

Flair has a 737 sitting in YOW that’s hasn’t moved in almost two weeks.

Tbaylx or co-Joe will tell you it’s for advertising

[Tbayer2021]

Flair has a 737 sitting in YOW that’s hasn’t moved in almost two weeks.

Tbaylx or co-Joe will tell you it’s for advertising

It's actually part of the ULCC strategy that the company has proven in Canada for the first time ever. You save money by not burning as much gas. Surprising that you didn't know this. No wonder why pilots don't lead airlines.

[flying4dollars]

Flair has a 737 sitting in YOW that’s hasn’t moved in almost two weeks.

Tbaylx or co-Joe will tell you it’s for advertising

It's actually part of the ULCC strategy that the company has proven in Canada for the first time ever. You save money by not burning as much gas. Surprising that you didn't know this. No wonder why pilots don't lead airlines.

Ok, true you save on fuel, but how does a parked plane pay for its lease payment?

[Zanzibar]

Has the airline lost a sizeable amount of pilots lately? Is there many able to do an increased schedule? How many will be going to Australia? A friends mate started last week and all sounds well. Wish them all luck. No one wants to hear of job losses.

[Smilin' Jack]

Has the airline lost a sizeable amount of pilots lately? Is there many able to do an increased schedule? How many will be going to Australia? A friends mate started last week and all sounds well. Wish them all luck. No one wants to hear of job losses.

Is 25-30% sizeable? We weren't predicting any hiring until 2024 but it seems that Porter and Air Canada have hired so many people out of YYZ an YKF that we can't staff the flights that we do have.

There were only a handful of pilots who decided to go to Australia for less pay than they would get in Canada. Those planes haven't flown since arriving either. Missing some CASA approval, paperwork, ground school...So far it's been an expensive ferry flight to nowhere.

[hsilgnepilot]

I see C-FFLZ flew YVR-YHZ last night on what looks to be a ferry flight number. Another parked plane?

[ready]

Flair hasn’t lost anywhere near 25-30% of its pilots recently. That’s just not true. They hired one small class in November to cover some attrition.

Also, I can’t see any flights canceled recently out of YYZ or YKF so I doubt that claim is true either.

[ready]

I see C-FFLZ flew YVR-YHZ last night on what looks to be a ferry flight number. Another parked plane?

That was a charter

[GRK2]

"There were only a handful of pilots who decided to go to Australia for less pay than they would get in Canada."

Well now that seems unlikely. Explain where you got that gem of misinformation from. More pilots than were required actually bid on the deployment. I'm told it's a pretty senior bunch. With a waiting list.

For less pay? Again, please let the class know where that came from.

[Smilin' Jack]

They hired one small class in November to cover some attrition.

Also, I can’t see any flights canceled recently out of YYZ or YKF so I doubt that claim is true either.

Ya, "some."
I never said flights were cancelled. Crew sched is burning people out in YYZ with the non-crewed flights that definitely aren't open time (we don't have any according to management). People are being called in from other bases to cover the flying.

"There were only a handful of pilots who decided to go to Australia for less pay than they would get in Canada."

Well now that seems unlikely. Explain where you got that gem of misinformation from. More pilots than were required actually bid on the deployment. I'm told it's a pretty senior bunch. With a waiting list.

For less pay? Again, please let the class know where that came from.

Oh, I'm sorry, I should have said, that the "bonus" of working in Australia is $0.36 per hour. Certainly makes being away from your family for 4-6 months worth it. This is the lucrative deal that the MEC negotiated on our behalf. In the process, they forgot to negotiate bus tickets so the pilots are on their own for transportation. That's ok though, they are making cents hand over fist so they can afford to pay for their own transportation and cell phones and blah, blah, blah.

[Zanzibar]

How many days a month of work for average Flair pilot?

[co-joe]

How many days a month of work for average Flair pilot?

I can't answer the average as I don't know, but I know the range is from 8-18 days max. The only bases with 8 day blocks are YVR, YYZ, and YKF. From AB bases the longest turns are closer to 8 hours yielding a 10 day schedule for the senior line holders. Anyone on reserve or doing min credit flights is going to be working 18 days, as soon as you can hold any higher seniority flying the workload goes down quite a bit.

[co-joe]

Sounds about right. This time last year everyone was complaining about not having any layovers and how hard it was to commute…this year everyone will be complaining about too many layovers, in Cancun of all places!

Yes sure. 3 days in Cancun worth 10.5 credits. Bravo.

So they’re just not paying min credit? How is that a thing?

I typically keep the negativity for the group chats and present positive vibes here, but I'll correct this a bit. They have corrected the min credit layover thing, but the way they went about it will make your skin crawl. We now get 4 hours min credit per day while on "layover" in CUN, but the companies way of correcting it is to put pilots on reserve while there.

Enjoy your "layover" but stay sober, and don't leave the hotel, because you're on reserve...and ALPA is squawking 7600.

Anyhoo, the southern loads are really picking up after the first few being pretty weak, we're taking care of heavy checks now, new hires classes have begun again, 30 pilots are headed down under, hotel suits right on the beach, lots happening. Way more than I can keep track of.

[cdnavater]

Yes sure. 3 days in Cancun worth 10.5 credits. Bravo.

So they’re just not paying min credit? How is that a thing?

I typically keep the negativity for the group chats and present positive vibes here, but I'll correct this a bit. They have corrected the min credit layover thing, but the way they went about it will make your skin crawl. We now get 4 hours min credit per day while on "layover" in CUN, but the companies way of correcting it is to put pilots on reserve while there.

Enjoy your "layover" but stay sober, and don't leave the hotel, because you're on reserve...and ALPA is squawking 7600.

Anyhoo, the southern loads are really picking up after the first few being pretty weak, we're taking care of heavy checks now, new hires classes have begun again, 30 pilots are headed down under, hotel suits right on the beach, lots happening. Way more than I can keep track of.

Wow, what does your contract say about reserve out of base? This doesn’t seem like a company that wants to keep or attract pilots to the operation.

[lament]

Wow, what does your contract say about reserve out of base?

nothing

pilots are also being sent from western bases to YYZ to be on reserve in a hotel room

there are a lot of holes in this contract

[Smilin' Jack]

Wow, what does your contract say about reserve out of base? This doesn’t seem like a company that wants to keep or attract pilots to the operation.

Not a damn thing so it should have been a non-starter. The problem is, our MEC is AWOL. The Chairman is on holidays golfing with the Chief Pilot in Australia. The other two haven't been heard from since August.

Most people are waiting for the new MEC to take over so that something actually gets done. I'm not sure that we want to wait until March to start solving problems.

[fish4life]

Wow, what does your contract say about reserve out of base? This doesn’t seem like a company that wants to keep or attract pilots to the operation.

Not a damn thing so it should have been a non-starter. The problem is, our MEC is AWOL. The Chairman is on holidays golfing with the Chief Pilot in Australia. The other two haven't been heard from since August.

Most people are waiting for the new MEC to take over so that something actually gets done. I'm not sure that we want to wait until March to start solving problems.

Why don’t your LEC reps recall them then? End it tomorrow

[co-joe]

Wow, what does your contract say about reserve out of base?

nothing

pilots are also being sent from western bases to YYZ to be on reserve in a hotel room

there are a lot of holes in this contract

Massive holes you could drive an 18 wheeler through, and at the moment, Management seems to have a Class 1 license, and the existing Union MEC is mostly silent. It's a bit frustrating, but we have amazing people actively looking for ways to improve things, a completely new MEC starting in March, so lots of reasons to be optimistic. Unfortunately it feels like all eyes are on Australia, and Canada is being left to run itself...to some degree. Otherwise it's still a great job, with amazing people, but it's easy to lose sight of that amidst the complaining.

[co-joe]

Why don’t your LEC reps recall them then? End it tomorrow

We don't have LECs yet. Just one MEC