Air Canada Pool

[SgtStroka]

No worries, I interviewed Feb 5th, 2013. There were three of us in that day, a guy from Evas, a nice gal from a Caravan operator overseas, and myself. I had similar experience to her, but I had about 500hrs extra Multi then she did, a mix of FO and PIC.

[PositiveRate27]

Did you have much multi PIC?

[Slappy the Squirrel]

There was an email to the pool this week.

No real exciting news, they look less optimistic about fall ground schools. They are saying now that ground schools will not occur until fall at the earliest, so it sounds as though the possibility exists that us poolies will be waiting into 2015.

[Gate Go]

Folks,
I've heard the latest bid shows 13 EMB and 1 airbus FO positions avail. When do these positions get filled? Do they go unfilled until the next course? Judging from the lack of courses, the next bid will be out showing more positions available. I guess what my questions is: what is the "threshold" on empty bid positions where a new course is decided or is it some other metric?
Confirm next bid is early Aug?
It would be great if someone could start a rumour about a course in Sept and Oct starting with 20 dudes on each!!
Cheers,
Anxiously and patiently waiting for a course!!

[DH772]

13 EMB and 1 mainline FO?

EMB are part of mainline operation. Not sure what you're referring to.

[Gate Go]

Maybe you can clarify: isn't the Embraer 190 included on the bid?

[Slappy the Squirrel]

Gate Go,

Yes, the E190 is on the bid. Your referring to "13 Embraer and 1 mainline FO" is a bit confusing because the Embraer IS a mainline job. In any case, last bid showed 13 new hire positions total. All 13 were mainline positions. 12 on the E190, 1 on the A320.

You're not likely to hear a rumour regarding 20 pilots being hired in Sept + Oct, things are still pretty stagnant. That June bid is referring to open positions come beginning of Dec 2014, so if that bid is 100% accurate (which they're not) then they would want to have 13 new pilots online by December.

Take it from somebody who has been waiting in the pool over a year so far (and I'm sure from others who have been waiting close to 18 months) try to temper your expectations. Hopefully things ramp up sooner rather than later for you, but things still look kind of bleak at the moment. Hopefully the bid in 3 weeks time will show something to get excited about!

[SpeedChecks]

As a newbie to the aviation industry i got a curious question. Is it possible to get hired as a pilot for a main company like Air Canada with out an ATPL? If so, how would you get the liscense, through the company..? How would it work? Thanks.

[Oxi]

Canso, suggest you do some research about licensing in canada on the forum and outside of avcanada.
Air Canada does give you a license or an ATPL to fly their planes. Can't speak about getting hired without an ATPL as you would need a CPL with IATRA... Highly doubt you would get hired without one.

[Krimson]

Censo, you might be thinking of an ATPL like a truck licence. It's not really the same, but they will give you the rating required for the job. To simplify it, when you have enough experience to be hired from Air Canada, you will already have your ATPL.

[cdnpilot77]

It sounds like he is asking about a cadet type of program sponsored by the airline. Didn't Air Canada have this a short time ago with Georgian? How did that one work out? Are any of the cadets online yet?

[Inverted2]

It sounds like he is asking about a cadet type of program sponsored by the airline. Didn't Air Canada have this a short time ago with Georgian? How did that one work out? Are any of the cadets online yet?

Lets hope it doesn't work out. There are plenty of experienced pilots out there. The only reason for the Georgian (AC?) cadet program is that they want cheap inexperienced seat ballast that won't complain about the poor wages.

[cdnpilot77]

I'm not debating the merits or hindrances of that program, that's a whole other topic. I was simply curious of how it worked out so far if anyone has made it through the program yet.

[leftoftrack]

It's 5 years before any one will see the inside of an air Canada airplane. 1 year in Florida 4 years at ggn then onto AC program started a year ago

[Slappy the Squirrel]

Sounds like another pilot bid came out yesterday for Feb 2015.

More bad news with regards to hiring, there are only 12 new hire positions showing, in other words a reduction of one job from the last bid.

[DBC]

12 Vacancies is accurate, and sadly I can't see them running a course with those numbers when many positions are still double crewed.

[Ironman2909]

I don't understand why they run interviews if they don't plan to hire. I know that they want to populate the pool but it is not fare for the guys or gals who are looking to get in at AC. I don't remember have seen anywhere where a company let people waiting for months even years in the pool. It's better to say, where not hiring because we don't need pilot. Sad....

[DBC]

I think the company did plan to hire, but misread how the retirements after the age 60 ruling changed would work out. Under the old rules we would have hired 200 or so in the past two years, but the vast majority of people seem to be continuing past age 60 and the company lost the ability to plan with a fair amount of certainty.

[rudder]

Just do what the US carriers did - add 5 years to all age 60 based retirement projections then subtract 10-15% for medical and early retirement. Then you will have your attrition numbers.

[Slappy the Squirrel]

Email to the pool went out today. There was some new information, none of it good for us poolies.

There will be no new pilots hired until spring 2015 at the earliest. The pilot hiring ad online is being taken down as a result. There are currently 60 candidates in the pool, but a few more may be added since they are still processing files following interviews completed recently.

All in all, some very rotten news in fact.

[rudder]

The age 60 'bubble' has simply moved to age 65. When it starts, over 1000 AC pilots will retire over a 7.5 year time frame. Be patient.

[Ironman2909]

Agree on the be patient....but don't run interviews just to fill a pool of potential candidates that will wait over a year to get a call ....but I understand that the new rule as screwed up the whole planning of how many retirees AC would need to be replacing.

[powerbrian]

To all of you poolies: what are your times looking like right now?

[Slappy the Squirrel]

I guess it's just frustrating that AC told some our our current employers that we would be hired in fall 2013. This does nothing for job security while waiting endlessly for a call.

[arcadia]

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