FlyingClimber wrote:Hi James,

Couple questions for you. What is the average flight time per year, for pilots? And is there some plans for a bigger aircraft than a CJ2 in Montreal in the future?

Thanks for your time.

The average flight time per year right now is 380 hours. Our pilots are on reserve 234 days per year and of this they average 146 days flying/training/on layover. Our planes don't really have bases and XL/S pilots are able to be based in Montreal as well.

Regards,

James

Thank you very much for the info and the reply that quick, it all sounds really good.

Hi to all,

Any info on the hiring status by this time @ AirSprint ?

Thank you

Avcanades wrote:Hi to all,

Any info on the hiring status by this time @ AirSprint ?

Thank you

Just hired one Captain for the CJ2+. Expect to hire 3 to 5 pilots (Captains/First Officers) over next 4-5 months.

Regards,

AirSprint HR

Oh thanks to Airsprint HR for this quick info.

little more precision : Somthing expected in YUL ?

Avcanades wrote:Oh thanks to Airsprint HR for this quick info.

little more precision : Somthing expected in YUL ?

Don't know right now where future positions will be required.

Regards,

AirSprint HR

Dear Airsprint HR member,

I'm wondering what is the best way to be informed when a pilot position will pop-up @ Airsprint ?

thank you very much.

Avcanades wrote:Dear Airsprint HR member,

I'm wondering what is the best way to be informed when a pilot position will pop-up @ Airsprint ?

thank you very much.

Good question. My quick answer is to monitor Avcanada once a week or so and that way you will see when we post. That seems kind of inadequate though considering the technology that is available today. We'll do something with social media in addition to Avcanada... Don't know what yet but you will have the ability to subscribe to our page and we'll post updates when we are hiring. LinkedIn is probably the place. Timeline? Sometime in the next few months.

AirSprint HR

We are hiring a Director of Business Development to be based in Toronto and cover the Ontario region. Ad is in the job posting section and career guide is attached (compensation etc).

AirSprint HR

We will be interviewing for Captain/FO spots for Calgary/Toronto/Montreal over the next 4 to 6 weeks. These spots are for expected fall positions. The ad is up in the jobs section and I'll post it on LinkedIn. If you follow AirSprint on LinkedIn you can see updates going forward (in addition to Avcanada).

AirSprint HR

Careful, I've heard life is not all roses at Sprint.

Everyman wrote:Careful, I've heard life is not all roses at Sprint.

I've heard life is not all roses at Westjet, Aircanada, Jazz, Encoure, Sunwest, North Caribou, Flair, and every other company in this country.

So what is your point? If you could truely find a company in this country where there is at least one person that is not bitter, than I would be truely amazed.

When a individual choose's to work for a company, they must weigh the pro's and con's of said company for themselves. Not every job will suit every person, so yes, somebody will not be happy a company A, yet extremely happy at company B which I heard is not all roses.

Just saying

P.S - Nice first post

Fair enough, my statement was vague. Also, I agree that you are likely to find at least one disgruntled employee at any company. From what I have heard the number of unhappy folks at Sprint is higher than one. Just a word of caution, I have heard moral is low.

P.S. Nice 2146th post.

The two most used words in the aviation industry....."I've heard...". Well "I've" is a contraction, but you get the point.

I've heard that's not true...

Wow, I didn't know the grammar police were going to be out tonight.

"I've" is a contraction of "I have" which refers to the multiple occasions in the past tense in which I have been told that people are not happy at AirSprint. You don't need to take it from me, I am just trying to pass the word of caution as I have heard it.

I look forward to receiving my grade on this post. I'm up to three so Flyinhigh should be happy and spell check liked it too...I'll hold my breath now.

Everyman wrote:Wow, I didn't know the grammar police were going to be out tonight.

"I've" is a contraction of "I have" which refers to the multiple occasions in the past tense in which I have been told that people are not happy at AirSprint. You don't need to take it from me, I am just trying to pass the word of caution as I have heard it.

I look forward to receiving my grade on this post. I'm up to three so Flyinhigh should be happy and spell check liked it too...I'll hold my breath now.

If you have something specific to share then I'm sure prospective candidates would be interested in what you have to say. A generic I've heard people aren't happy isn't very constructive or helpful though. Not happy with their coffee? Not happy with the color of their tie? Or not happy with something else..it would be a lot more useful and open you up to less trolling if you'd post specifics with something to back you up.

From an outsider's perspective I'm impressed enough that Air Sprint actually replies here to intelligent posts and has the decency to post a professional looking recruitment document that clearly spells out payscales, benefits and expectations. Nice to see a company that is that transparent and open whatever other faults they may have.

tbaylx.....+1

Everyman wrote:From what I have heard the number of unhappy folks at Sprint is higher than one. Just a word of caution, I have heard moral is low.

AirSprint HR wrote:No active plans for further hiring right now but that may change over the next few months. As an update, there are now 3 CJ2+ aircraft online and the schedule is in the process of switching to 8/4 from 10/5 following a vote by the pilots.

AirSprint HR

As a suggestion, why don't you offer two or three different options for the pilots. This has the benefit of making the company more appealing to people and gives you a larger pool to choose from. I know there can be scheduling issues but with computer scheduling, the complicated can be made less complicated.

While I don't know if finding quality pilots is an issue for AS, when I read about some of these companies that have trouble recruiting and I look at the schedule, I think, why don't they have a second option available. A lot of pilots have family commitments as well and with both mom and Dad having income, pay is not as much an issue as time off. If a company were to offer an option of reduced pay for a different more family friendly schedule(such as 14 on/14 off), there might be an increased amount of interest. Another possibility is part time positions to fill in.

I know that there are still fixed costs in a company regardless of the amount of work done but I feel it is something a company should consider as you will never make everyone happy with one schedule type.

I don't usually post other than to answer direct questions or post job openings but I thought I would share a few thoughts on the current topic.

One of the comments made above about companies being a great fit for some, while not great for others is true of AirSprint no different than any other company. One example of this is the on-demand nature of our flying. Some people love the frequent changes (I happen to be one) while others do not. AirSprint is also not perfect. We do try very hard to continuously improve as an employer and retain the best people we can. We recognize that AirSprint's success over the years is directly related to the excellent people that have been part of our family and we have strived to continuously make improvements to wages/lifestyle/benefits as the company has grown in order to retain the best people possible. The preferential bidding system that we introduced last year in order to improve pilot quality of life is just one example of this.

Money related items are only one part of the equation though and how we personally treat people is equally important. I've attached an internal document that the managers developed a few years ago that guides how we act internally. These guiding principles guide our daily actions and we strive to follow them to the best of our ability every day. Again, we are not perfect, but we try hard everyday to get a little closer.

James Elian
President & COO (& AirSprint HR)

pelmet wrote:

Everyman wrote:From what I have heard the number of unhappy folks at Sprint is higher than one. Just a word of caution, I have heard moral is low.

AirSprint HR wrote:No active plans for further hiring right now but that may change over the next few months. As an update, there are now 3 CJ2+ aircraft online and the schedule is in the process of switching to 8/4 from 10/5 following a vote by the pilots.

AirSprint HR

As a suggestion, why don't you offer two or three different options for the pilots. This has the benefit of making the company more appealing to people and gives you a larger pool to choose from. I know there can be scheduling issues but with computer scheduling, the complicated can be made less complicated.

While I don't know if finding quality pilots is an issue for AS, when I read about some of these companies that have trouble recruiting and I look at the schedule, I think, why don't they have a second option available. A lot of pilots have family commitments as well and with both mom and Dad having income, pay is not as much an issue as time off. If a company were to offer an option of reduced pay for a different more family friendly schedule(such as 14 on/14 off), there might be an increased amount of interest. Another possibility is part time positions to fill in.

I know that there are still fixed costs in a company regardless of the amount of work done but I feel it is something a company should consider as you will never make everyone happy with one schedule type.

Hi pelmet,

We now have 6 CJ2+ aircraft online and introduced a computerized equity based (similar to WestJet vs seniority at Air Canada) preferential bidding system (PBS) for pilots last fall. This PBS was brought in for the reasons you mentioned (improved control over home time/quality of life etc.) and our pilots are averaging over 90% at getting the time off requested. As for the part time option, it does not make sense for us at this point but may as the fleet grows in the future.

Thanks for the suggestions.

James

From what I’ve been told the PBS has some serious limitations, which make it laughable when compared with more comprehensive bid systems. For example the shortest pairing possible is five days consecutively which might not sound bad on paper, but in practice is very limiting. Lets say your kid has Karate on Wednesday and you want to go to church on Sunday, you are SOL. Also, 90% satisfaction sounds great but there are also months where you will get 30% satisfaction. Consider your already compromised schedule request (as per the 5 day limit) then consider receiving only a percentage of that request. What it boils down to is that you might as well grab a handful of darts and throw them at a calendar. Hopefully one sticks on your kid’s first birthday…but maybe one won’t.

It’s true that some people thrive on a dynamic ever changing and challenging schedule. But imagine your wife asking you what you are doing tomorrow and all you can tell her is that your scheduled flight has changed four times in the last hour. You have no idea but expect to be gone. Once you are gone expect each day to change several times even as the day is going. An overnight in Palm Springs…wrong, you’re going to Flin Flon, I hope you packed your parka. Hey Wifey, I’ll be home at noon on my last day…Boom you’re home at 2am.

It’s also worth mentioning that the motivation behind implementing the PBS may have been to improve the quality of life for the pilots. However some believe that it was actually motivated by the bottom line. The system allows the schedule to be crewed more efficiently (read: fewer pilots on salary). A smart move, no doubt, but lets call a spade a spade. This is a cost saving measure not a fuzzy hug for the pilots.

Everyman,

A lot of that is the nature of the fractional business.

If it's a fixed schedule that a pilot wants then he/she should stay away from most corporate gigs and stick with the scheduled carriers.

^^^ what he/she said


Don't like it, don't apply and find a unionized airline to work for. That's the nature of corporate/fractional/charter biz.

I don't work for Air Sprint, but I have had days where I've called the wife on a Friday in KFXE to say "I'm on my way to the airport, departing at noon, see you tonight" then calling about 2hrs later to say "I'll be home Tuesday afternoon, sorry." It happens...not frequently (but occasionally)that bad, but 0600 departures turn into 1300 departures more often. But lets not forget the months where you might only work 8-10 days instead of the guaranteed 16-20. Or the 3-4 day layovers in South Florida/Bahamas/Vegas/Scottsdale/Cabo in the middle of the winter. Not every job is right for every person, look at your owns needs and decide if it would work in your lifestyle or not and apply...or don't. It's really that simple.

^ what he said

Corporations own their own aircraft for the flexibility it provides. The flight crew needs to be flexible as well. Definitely not for everyone, but it can be a rewarding and enjoyable career.