WestJet Encore applies for LMIA to hire foreign pilot

[Jean-Pierre]

WestJet Encore has agreed to abandon their plan to hire TFW pilots. Good job everybody.

[itsgrosswhatinet]

Every large company in Canada has frozen hiring. I'm not sure how much this decision was because of anything we did or threatened to do.

[leftoftrack]

Everyone is hiring. Porter is running classes now, AC is running classes now, Encore has planes parked due to lack of crews Westjet is running transition classes from Sunwing but that will only be for 3 more months.

[flieslikeachicken]

Everyone is hiring. Porter is running classes now, AC is running classes now, Encore has planes parked due to lack of crews Westjet is running transition classes from Sunwing but that will only be for 3 more months.

Rumour mill has been printing that WestJet will not be hiring for the rest of the year and that there will be no flow of Encore pilots.

[phenix]

Everyone is hiring. Porter is running classes now, AC is running classes now, Encore has planes parked due to lack of crews Westjet is running transition classes from Sunwing but that will only be for 3 more months.

Rumour mill has been printing that WestJet will not be hiring for the rest of the year and that there will be no flow of Encore pilots.

Heard the same rumor, I tend to believe it.
WestJet plus Sunwing had 2475 pilots end of November 2024, and 2400 today. Out of these 2400 pilots, 58 were hired in 2024 and 1 in 2025.
The surplus/non surplus of pilots coming from Sunwing has been discussed enough, but there is a clear voluntary shrinkage of the workforce post merger.

[Dry Guy]

The normal procedure for corporate chop shops like Onex is to dismantle its own operations or assets to extract value or profit from them, often at the expense of employees.

[safetyfirst123]

Everyone is hiring. Porter is running classes now, AC is running classes now, Encore has planes parked due to lack of crews Westjet is running transition classes from Sunwing but that will only be for 3 more months.

Rumour mill has been printing that WestJet will not be hiring for the rest of the year and that there will be no flow of Encore pilots.

Heard the same rumor, I tend to believe it.
WestJet plus Sunwing had 2475 pilots end of November 2024, and 2400 today. Out of these 2400 pilots, 58 were hired in 2024 and 1 in 2025.
The surplus/non surplus of pilots coming from Sunwing has been discussed enough, but there is a clear voluntary shrinkage of the workforce post merger.

It will be interesting to see once they add the Sunwing flying next winter how the numbers will look. Sunwing generally operated approximately 40 airplanes including a bunch of wet leased aircraft with pilots from overseas for the winter under the reciprocal agreements. Sunwing pilots would then go to Europe for the summer. Hopefully once the Sunwing program is integrated the numbers will look more promising.

[flieslikeachicken]

It will be interesting to see once they add the Sunwing flying next winter how the numbers will look. Sunwing generally operated approximately 40 airplanes including a bunch of wet leased aircraft with pilots from overseas for the winter under the reciprocal agreements. Sunwing pilots would then go to Europe for the summer. Hopefully once the Sunwing program is integrated the numbers will look more promising.

WestJet will not be participating in the aircraft and crew exchanges of years past.

[safetyfirst123]

It will be interesting to see once they add the Sunwing flying next winter how the numbers will look. Sunwing generally operated approximately 40 airplanes including a bunch of wet leased aircraft with pilots from overseas for the winter under the reciprocal agreements. Sunwing pilots would then go to Europe for the summer. Hopefully once the Sunwing program is integrated the numbers will look more promising.

WestJet will not be participating in the aircraft and crew exchanges of years past.

I never suggested that they would. My point is that unless they make cuts to the Sunwing program, there is a lot of flying that would need to be added next winter. I've heard it will be the largest flying program for Westjet in the winter, and there will not be much slack in the system and a lot more red eyes to accommodate the anticipated flying. I believe it will be very busy for everybody.

[safetyfirst123]

Having said that, imagine if Westjet brought in 787's from TUI to help with the summer flying, and 737's in the winter?

[dustyroads]

If the experience a friend of mine recently had with the Westjet hiring people they will be hiring TFWs soon enough. They had an in person interview invite presented. All was good but they wanted copy of their radio licence before the interview as part of all the documents one has to submit. They like me and most of us in the 703 world don’t carry the radio licence and I’d have to do some digging to find it. So they advised the recruiter the issue and withdrew their application. Once they found the radio licence they advised the recruiter, reapplied and was thinking they could continue the process. Instead the recruiter advised they weren’t going to proceed with application and they’d be eligible to reapply in 6 months. For a company that is hurting for captains it seems counterproductive in treating a candidate that way. Maybe ALPA should look into their hiring practices as it looks like westjet isn’t interested in hiring Canadians if the experience my friend had is an indication.

[fish4life]

If the experience a friend of mine recently had with the Westjet hiring people they will be hiring TFWs soon enough. They had an in person interview invite presented. All was good but they wanted copy of their radio licence before the interview as part of all the documents one has to submit. They like me and most of us in the 703 world don’t carry the radio licence and I’d have to do some digging to find it. So they advised the recruiter the issue and withdrew their application. Once they found the radio licence they advised the recruiter, reapplied and was thinking they could continue the process. Instead the recruiter advised they weren’t going to proceed with application and they’d be eligible to reapply in 6 months. For a company that is hurting for captains it seems counterproductive in treating a candidate that way. Maybe ALPA should look into their hiring practices as it looks like westjet isn’t interested in hiring Canadians if the experience my friend had is an indication.

Were they applying for WJ or Encore as it’s going to be different situations.

[dustyroads]

If the experience a friend of mine recently had with the Westjet hiring people they will be hiring TFWs soon enough. They had an in person interview invite presented. All was good but they wanted copy of their radio licence before the interview as part of all the documents one has to submit. They like me and most of us in the 703 world don’t carry the radio licence and I’d have to do some digging to find it. So they advised the recruiter the issue and withdrew their application. Once they found the radio licence they advised the recruiter, reapplied and was thinking they could continue the process. Instead the recruiter advised they weren’t going to proceed with application and they’d be eligible to reapply in 6 months. For a company that is hurting for captains it seems counterproductive in treating a candidate that way. Maybe ALPA should look into their hiring practices as it looks like westjet isn’t interested in hiring Canadians if the experience my friend had is an indication.

Were they applying for WJ or Encore as it’s going to be different situations.

Westjet Encore Dash 8 Captain