Sunwing/Canjet fleet and foreign pilots winter 2012-2013

[Gilles Hudicourt]

I appreciate what you're getting at, but posts such as the one above make you sound like a school girl gossiping. Stick to facts, it makes you sound much more credible.

Ok. You want facts. Last year, Sunwing had to send home at least 7 Travel Service Captains who failed their PPCs. These 7 Captains all came back to fly the wet-leased Travel Service 737 that Sunwing leased from Feb to May 2012.

I have proof of those failures because I asked TC for them. The completed request can be viewed here:

http://www.tc.gc.ca/eng/corporate-servi ... 12-940.htm

Request number A-2012-00024

"Information on all foreign Sunwing pilots who failed their Pilot Proficiency Check (PPC) on the Boeing 737 from September 2011 to February 2012"

How I know that these failed pilots came back as Captains of the Travel Service Wet-lease? At first it was published right here on AvCanada and later confirmed to me by several Sunwing pilots. In fact the last time a Sunwing pilot with direct knowledge of this issue brought this up with me was no earlier than yesterday morning, just before I left for the simulator. Of 8 Captains that flew that Wet-leased aircraft, 7 had previously failed Transport Canada PPCs.

In light of this, I find it peculiar that two of Sunwing's foreign pilots, who may or may not be Czechs, seemed to have failed their rides yesterday while I happened to be at CAE. I only go there twice a year. It is a repeat of last year ?

There happens to be 3 Travel Service wet-leases in Canada right now and a fourth is on the way. One of the three, the Slovak Registered one, even seems to be flying without a valid Canadian Foreign Operator's Certificate, in clear violation of CAR 701.

Wet-Leasing is a back door way to avoid Canadian work permits for foreign pilots and mechanics, and a back door way to avoid troublesome PPCs for foreign pilots. It's mostly a back door way to avoid having to hire Canadians.

It's about time the general public found out about all this.

Does it sound like school girl gossip now ?

[pelmet]

A lot of failures. Interesting because in my experiences, usually the ride is easier than the training, just the standard V1 cut, and landing, 1 non-precision, 1 precision, some other kind of malfunction, perhaps an emegency descent and a circling approach. RTO and maybe a couple of other things.

Anybody know why these guys are failing. Is it more lack of regulatory knowledge or a serious lack of flying skill?

[Dick]

Does it sound like school girl gossip now ?

The fact is, that unless you were in the room during the debrief, you don't know who the pilots were or what the outcome of the ride was.

In light of this, I find it peculiar that two of Sunwing's foreign pilots, who may or may not be Czechs, seemed to have failed their rides yesterday while I happened to be at CAE. I only go there twice a year. It is a repeat of last year ?

The paragraph above is based purely on speculation. So to answer your question, yes. I don't disagree with your cause, however I stand by my previous statement that you need to stick to facts.

[Gilles Hudicourt]

Does it sound like school girl gossip now ?

The fact is, that unless you were in the room during the debrief, you don't know who the pilots were or what the outcome of the ride was.

In light of this, I find it peculiar that two of Sunwing's foreign pilots, who may or may not be Czechs, seemed to have failed their rides yesterday while I happened to be at CAE. I only go there twice a year. It is a repeat of last year ?

The paragraph above is based purely on speculation. So to answer your question, yes. I don't disagree with your cause, however I stand by my previous statement that you need to stick to facts.

If you think I am wrong about anything I posted, just go ahead and write it. Write what I was wrong about, and set me straight. I can take it. If I was wrong about anything I wrote I will gladly admit it and write so right here.

[Gilles Hudicourt]

It seems that the Slovak registered B-737 on Wet-Lease to Sunwing, OM-TVR, did not fly today.

Why ? I do not know. Anyone ?

Gilles

[complexintentions]

Dick,

You're really not contributing anything to the issue. One of the biggest challenges that appears to be facing Gilles is the almost complete lack of transparency he's had to deal with, dealing with Transport Canada, Sunwing, and CanJet. In spite of that, he has organized a coherent, well-researched and documented account of the disgrace that this situation is. But by definition some detective work will be based partly on hearsay and second-hand information until such time it can be confirmed. Especially when (obviously) concerned parties would rather their tactics didn't see the light of day.

Gilles observations were not stated as facts, but as his judgement. Which he is entitled to and frankly, has earned the right to have respected based on the many facts he has already uncovered.

Your posts seem at worst, a subtle attempt to discredit what is quite obviously a genuine effort to uncover truth, and at best, are only muddying the waters. I concede that perhaps you are taking it to the nth degree to possibly protect the reputation of the poor downtrodden Travel Service pilots, but given that they are ostensibly captain-rated airline pilots, and not identified personally to boot, they can probably handle it.

Keep up the good fight Gilles.

[Gilles Hudicourt]

Sunwing's fleet has a new arrival enroute from Prague right now, another Wet-Lease. It's OK-TVF, another B-737-800. That brings the total number of Sunwing Wet-Leases in Canada to 4. There is no decision yet on these 4 aircraft on the CTA Website although the first of these aircraft has been flying in Canada since Oct 26th.

Sunwing's total fleet now stands at 17 aircraft: 10 of Sunwing's own aircraft, 4 Wet-Leases, and 3 Dry-Leases.

Six of the Wet and Dry leased were sourced from Czech Travel Service and one Wet-Lease was sourced from Slovak Travel Service. The latter, OM-TVR, is the aircraft that I think was flying illegally for lack of a TS issued FAOC. It has not flown since coming back from PUJ on the evening of the 5th.

Edit: OK-TVK was transferred onto the Canadian Civil Aircraft Register this afternoon. Its a dry lease.

So Sunwing now has 14 aircraft that it has to operate with its own crews, but two of those are not yet flying (must be in maintenance). With its 170 or so Canadian pilots, I assume it still has enough Canadian pilots to fly all of these pilots, but that is about the maximum they will be able to have without being forced to get extra help. Who will those extra pilots be and where will they come from. Sources indicate that some Foreign pilots are due to arrive at the end of this week.

[Gilles Hudicourt]

My colleagues who were waiting for their turn at the sim, told me that while waiting they saw a couple foreigners go into the B-737-800 simulator with a Transport Canada inspector. It was booked under Sunwing Airlines (They were speaking a language that was not French or English or German). Within half an hour, everyone was back in the lounge. It didn't look like the test went very well for those guys.

I appreciate what you're getting at, but posts such as the one above make you sound like a school girl gossiping. Stick to facts, it makes you sound much more credible.

A trustworthy source just wrote to me to tell me that there are no Sunwing foreign pilots being trained or tested at CAE these days. So I stand corrected. That's what Dick, who knew that, should have written or PM me. But his goal was not to set the record straight.

But my main concern was that if these people had been Foreign Pilots, this would prove their presence in Canada. But they are not.

[FICU]

Of 8 Captains that flew that Wet-leased aircraft, 7 had previously failed Transport Canada PPCs.

This is what the media and the public need to know. The fact that Canadians are booking vacation charters with a Canadian company with the expectation they will be flown by Canadian crews. If they knew they we being flown by foreign pilots who can't qualify to fly a Canadian aircraft I would imagine they would be a little alarmed.

[Gilles Hudicourt]

Of 8 Captains that flew that Wet-leased aircraft, 7 had previously failed Transport Canada PPCs.

This is what the media and the public need to know. The fact that Canadians are booking vacation charters with a Canadian company with the expectation they will be flown by Canadian crews. If they knew they we being flown by foreign pilots who can't qualify to fly a Canadian aircraft I would imagine they would be a little alarmed.

All the pilots at Sunwing know about it.
Transport Canada knows about it.
The CTA knows about it.

But: The CTA which authorizes the Wet-Lease is only concerned with commercial aspects.
The technical aspects of Wet-Leases are meant to be covered by TC in the form of a FAOC. The FAOC, however, is just meant to verify that the Foreign Operator conforms to all ICAO Annexes and that it has all the required documents from its home country.

From what I heard from TC is that the Czech Wet-Lease last winter met those conditions, even if the pilots had previously failed TC check rides. Once the foreign carrier meets all conditions for obtaining an FAOC, there is nothing they can do but to issue it to them.

There were cases in the past however when TC revoked or suspended a FAOC, but I think it was after the foreign airline in question had been the subject of several incidents in Canada.

One case I remember was this one, a foreign IL-76 that was on contract to the military. After a series of incidents, the company's FAOC was suspended.

http://www.rcaf-arc.forces.gc.ca/dfs-ds ... p?id=10099

[Gilles Hudicourt]

Remember my Nov 5 post about the Slovak registered Travel Service aircraft that seemed to be flying in Canada without a FAOC ? Well, it didn't fly on the 6th, it didn't fly on the 7th, it didn't fly on the 8th, and on the morning of the 9th, it left for Punta Cana, Dominican Republic and from there went back to Europe, with a stop-over in Lajes, in the Azores.

When I discover the full story I will post it.

[justwork]

You would think that it would be much easier, less stressful, and pro image for sunwing to hire Canadians. The pennies they must be saving, oh the pennies.

[BE20 Driver]

Maybe the strategy should be a two pronged approach.

1. Go after the regulatory bodies that are allowing this to happen - Good job Gilles!

2. Educate the public and get them onside. Some media attention should focused on the fact that these carriers were hiring foreigners when Canadians were on EI and those foreigners failed to meet Canadian standards. Maybe someone might be shamed into doing something about the problem we face.

[Gilles Hudicourt]

Sunwing Airlines newest aircraft, Czech registered and flown OK-TVM that arrived from PUJ yesterday to replace the Slovak registered and flown OM-TVR.

Here she is this morning in YYZ.

[NancyBlackett]

Greetings from Prague!

I have read both this thread and the similar one from last winter and I really feel the urge to say something...

First of all, let me explain that I am Czech and work in aviation but I am not a pilot.

Second, I totally understand you are upset, struggling to find a job after having paid so much for your licenses and type ratings. It is the same for pilots all over the world but yes, I understand you may be pissed. (Is this risk THE trade-off for having a great, nicely paid job you've always wanted to do? I would say so but that is certainly for another debate.)
Hell, I even understand you are pissed that someone else got a job you did not get.

What I fail to see is the reason for some of the harsh and rather radical comments regarding foreign pilots. Shouldn't it be your government you should be complaing about, rather than Sunwing, let alone the other companies who just signed some sort of a contract with SWG??

Just a few thoughts I had, reading all this...

- TVS and the other European operators obviously have to meet the EU-OPS rules, which, I am sure you'd agree, are pretty much the same (safety-wise, training-wise, etc.) as the US or Canadian ones. It also means all these pilots are fully qualified to the same standard as the crew of Lufthansa or British Airways.

- I honestly think that on average, TVS pilots are a bit more experienced than common European airline crew. I do not have any scientific research to prove that Just guessing - as most of them have experience from long-term ACMI operations in various countries (outside Europe for example Vietnam, Tajikistan, Oman or Iraq). Also the winter schedule of Travel Service usually contains a couple of long-haul (tech stops, yay!) flights so believe me, they are not going to be surprised by thunderstorms in the Caribbean as someone here suggested because they have already been there, having calculated fuel very cautiously all the way over the water and having landed at LPLA with 40kts gusting winds. Actually, as for the bad weather, isn't eastern Asia or equatorial Africa even worse? They fly there, too.. We do get snow here in Central Europe as well. Even in summer there are challenges on the roster (google LGHI, LGSK or BIAR).
This is not to brag about how great they all are. It just that some of you seem to think these pilots were born in a cave and got their flight hours on a crop dusting propeller-equipped butterfly.

- Regarding these comments about Canadian passengers expecting Canadian crew ... I am really trying hard not to laugh, I am sorry. Do _you_ expect native crew on all flights you take? And what native is the right one? Is it based on the callsign? The tailnumber? The livery? Come on. I do not know about Canada but ACMI leases are pretty standard over here. I would give some credit to the passengers complaining if they bought a ticket with a Czech (or Canadian) company and instead of a new-ish B738 they got a, say, Egyptian crew with a rusty DC9. Still, if it takes them from point A to point B safely, the harm done is almost nil. My opinion.

- Things are maybe turning for the better for you as I heard quite a few TVS pilots have not received work permit lately.

- Another aircraft coming to YYZ tomorrow via Keflavik - OK-TVJ. Dry-lease.

- Just curious - Has any of you tried to apply for an EU work permit? I have no idea how complicated is it to get for a Canadian.
If you come to work for TVS, you can spend all winter in Canada - Czech pilots do not want to go there so finally there would be some who would be happy to!


Overall it seems to me this "Eastern European accent" of theirs is the only valid point mentioned here. As there are *some* other foreign airlines flying into Canada, though, I guess the ATCOs will cope with that, too.

Oh, and if you happen to come across a Czech pilot around there, please don't act surprised that the Czechs do own a color TV (that was a real question!). Also, none of the pilots wants to immigrate to Canada and most of them have better cars than the shitty American ones. I can say that to Canadians, right?


Wow. What a post. I almost never engage in flamewars. And being a ground ops person, I would never expect to defend these guys so hard ) I promise I am not a pilot and I do not even date one I really just felt some of you were a bit unfair (actually sometimes a bit more than a bit).


Once again, please understand I mean no offence at all to any of you here, There IS some logic in protecting the country's market, I can see that.
Also, I am a girl. Only saying that hoping that you'd be less mad at me and more constructive in your criticism



Cheers!


P.S. Correct me if I am wrong but I thought if you work on a work permit in a foreign country, you typically pay taxes in this country. Someone here mentioned this argument, too, so just to make it clear.

[Gilles Hudicourt]

Dear NancyBlackett,

That was a very nice and interesting post. I will reply point by point but first I would like to ask you one question, to which I would appreciate an honest reply, please.

Last winter, out of approximately 350 pilots working for Sunwing, 200 were contract pilots, non-residents of Canada, on temporary work permits. Out of 24 aircraft in the Sunwing fleet, 7 were permanent aircraft registered in Canada and 17 were short term leases from Europe, 16 of them dry leases and 1 wet lease. Looking at your company's Website, I read that you have 25 airliners and 3 Executive aircraft. That probably equates to roughly 350 pilots.

My question is the following. How many of those pilots are contract pilots who do not maintain a home in your country ?

I know that in Europe it is common for pilots to be working in other countries, for the Czech Republic is part of the European Union where workers are free to work in any other EU country legally. For the work force, all of the EU is considered one country. Here in North America, we don't even have such an agreement with the USA. We have free trade but not free labor. Americans cannot come and fly for Canadian Airlines on a contract basis without work permits, nor can Canadians go fly for US airlines without the same, unless of course we become permanent legal residents in the host country.

Rest assured that we ARE complaining to our Government. Daily almost. I have personally written to three different Ministers, to several members of parliament, to many other people in Government and I personally drove to Ottawa, our Capital, to deliver a petition against the use of Foreign pilots signed by 2500 Canadian pilots. I later collected the Resumes of about 70 Canadian pilots that had applied at Sunwing and Canjet which our Union Head delivered in person to a Government office in Ottawa, to prove to them that there were qualified pilots in Canada that were being overlooked in favor of foreign contract help. We think that Sunwing and Canjet have been abusing certain Immigration programs that allows these temporary foreign workers into Canada and the bulk of our efforts has been to try to have the Government of Canada implement existing Canada legislation. The reason we are frustrated at Sunwing is when we realize the effort and resources they invest in exploiting every loophole they can find that will allow them to avoid hiring local pilots.

I have never had rash or radical comments towards foreign pilots. No one will be rude with them or throw tomatoes at them if that is your concern. This battle is not against them, it is against Sunwing and Canjet airlines who abuse the system and favor temporary foreign workers over competent, experienced and un-employed Canadian pilots.

You state that Czech pilots are competent. I am more than willing to believe you, Travel Service has no accident history. But that does not change the fact that seven TVS captains failed their rides late last year and were sent home. Someone wrote to me to state that these pilots had failed on purpose because they were forced to Canada by TVS, but when these same pilots Came back to Canada at the controls of a TVS wet-lease, it shocked many of us­. Imagine if I had failed a Czech State-mandated pilot check ride to fly a Travel Service aircraft, went home but came back one month later in Prague to fly an Air Transat aircraft on Wet-Lease to Travel Service. That they failed their rides is a fact. That they failed on purpose is nothing but rumor, that may or may not have been invented to save face. But it may be true, who knows ?

.....and having landed at LPLA with 40kts gusting winds.....

I had no intention of going there, but since you mention TVS landing at that specific airport, where Air Transat has also flown for many years, on March 10th, 2011, one of your Boeing 737s, OK-TVF, while doing a fuel stop, while enroute from Warsaw to Punta Cana, did a runway excursion in LPLA while landing in gusty crosswinds, resulting in broken runway lights, minor damage to the aircraft and a closed runway for several hours resulting in several aircraft diversions. There was a runway construction NOTAM in force at the time, which made things harder for the crew (the runway was narrow). I would not have brought this up if you had not opened this particular door so wide open for me, but hey..... you see, I do my homework well.

http://www.cmjornal.xl.pt/detalhe/notic ... i-reaberta

These threads about foreign pilots have nothing to do with xenophobia or foreign pilot incompetence. I am myself an immigrant to Canada from Haiti, the Banana Republic by excellence. In my country I used to fly propeller powered kites as you call them, aircraft such as World War Two Curtiss C-46 and Beech 18s, radial powered tail-draggers, that were built in the forties and fifties. My employers also had CV-440s, DC-3, DC-4, and DC-6 which I didn't fly commercially but did fly the DC-4 and the DC-3 in the right seat on test flights. In my first 2000 hours as a pilot, I had already experienced several engine failures and come back four times with a feathered engine, an experience I think was both educational and good for my self-confidence as a pilot. I once caught fire and made an emergency landing on a salt flat. I had an asymmetrical flap failure on short final and nearly killed myself when I had less than 400 hours TT. When I first came to Canada after about 2500 hours of flight, I would smile from the corner of my mouth when my Canadian check pilots would scream at me that my "mixture-pitch-power" wasn't fast enough and that I would get killed if I ever had a real engine failure.

By the way, they now have many Czech built Let-410s in Haiti, a fantastic, rugged and well built aircraft that I wish they had down there at the time I was building hours........

I have an accent when I speak on the radio, I was born in a Banana Republic, there was no TV in my house until I first moved overseas, and most homes in my country have no toilets, running water or electricity. And I drove shitty cars on dirt roads when I was back home.

All that is irrelevant. I now live in this country, I own a home here, I am legally allowed to work here full time, I raise my family here, I pay a lot of income and other taxes here, and I do not like it when my Air Transat colleagues, who were laid off, are left to collect employment insurance allocations from the Government when the jobs they should be getting are given away by the same Government to foreigners with homes in Prague, London, Paris, Brussels, Bratislava and Manchester.

It's nice to know that if we apply to Czech Travel Service, that we stand a chance of working for Sunwing. I will pass the word along. Are Boeing 737NG type ratings required or will you hire Airbus 330 and Airbus 310 rated guys and girls and train them ?

P.S. Correct me if I am wrong but I thought if you work on a work permit in a foreign country, you typically pay taxes in this country. Someone here mentioned this argument, too, so just to make it clear.

The above is very interesting. You seem to insinuate that your TVS colleagues who come to Canada pay taxes here. I was told otherwise, but if that is wrong, I always look forward to be set straight. If you know for a fact that TVS pilots on dry -lease contracts in Canada pay taxes here, let me know and I will stand corrected.

My credibility is based on always posting reliable information and verifiable information and I always appreciate it when people write to me to correct any false information I may have posted. If I was wrong on the income tax issue, please let me know as soon as possible.

I look forward to reading the answers to my questions.....

Thanks for writing.

Gilles Hudicourt

[Gilles Hudicourt]

As informed by our friend NancyBlackett, OK-TVJ is now enroute between KEF and YYZ. It it's a dry-lease, that will brink Sunwing's fleet to 18 aircraft, 3 of them wet-leases, and 5 of them dry-leases.

[complexintentions]

Interesting post from "Nancy", if "she" is indeed a Czech female, as stated. I have my doubts, since this is the internet and every Czech girl I've ever met has been named either Katerina or Petra. But I figured one pointless post deserved another. A few rebuttals:

-Non-Canadian residents do not have to pay Canadian income tax. The only countries that tax based on citizenship are North Korea and the USA. A variety of tests are applied to determine whether one is a resident or not, but the pertinent one here would be residing in Canada less than 180 days in a year. If the foreign pilots aren't in Canada more than that, they most likely aren't paying taxes. A shame, since that would help offset the Employment Insurance benefits being paid to the unemployed, qualified Canadian pilots whose jobs CanJet and Sunwing have given away.

-I wouldn't suggest that the TVS pilots are especially experienced compared to any other European pilots. Our company (Emirates) has arguably the most number of nationalities working for them, with 162 different nations represented at last count. Of our nearly 3,000 pilots, there are currently 8 Czechs. Put it another way, we are a Middle Eastern carrier with more female pilots than Czech pilots. So I have a hard time believing TVS has anything special.

-"Nancy" may find it amusing that Canadians would generally expect that their pilots were Canadian, but that only displays ignorance of the industry outside of Europe. While type-rating whores are common in Europe, and pay-for-work schemes, they aren't yet commonplace in Canada. So most pilots at the two majors (AC and SW) are usually indeed, Canadian citizens. She needs to get out of the EU sometime.

-Given that the EU and Europe in general is swirling the toilet bowl economically, and will be for the next couple of decades, I doubt there is much interest in exploring trying to work there. But I can tell you from years past, that Europe is far more protectionist than anything Canada is putting up to foreigners.

-My girlfriend is Czech, so I've spent a lot of time in Prague, and many years speaking to "Praha" on the radio as I go overhead. The Czechs have good beer (inventors of Pilsener after all, and the REAL Budweiser!). But they don't have better cars, that's a laugh. I do love eating at Pinkas whenever I'm in PRG.

-Lastly, it's a bit stupid to refer to a Czech accent as "Eastern European". The Czech Republic is dead centre in Europe, bordering Germany. It isn't Russia, Latvia, Estonia. Now THOSE are some cold women!

[Gilles Hudicourt]

-Non-Canadian residents do not have to pay Canadian income tax. The only countries that tax based on citizenship are North Korea and the USA. A variety of tests are applied to determine whether one is a resident or not, but the pertinent one here would be residing in Canada less than 180 days in a year. If the foreign pilots aren't in Canada more than that, they most likely aren't paying taxes. .

I heard that the foreign pilots who come to Canada as Temporary Foreign Workers don't pay taxes in Canada. But I read here that they should :

http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/nnrsdnts/nd ... s-eng.html

Anyone know about this ?

[ea306]

Perhaps the best people to ask are the CRA.

The link you provide seems to apply to Canadians who are looking at non-resident status or who under the conditions outlined become Deemed Residents.

I do not know what limitations are on their visas .... But I can tell you that when Sunwing crews are required immigration VISAs in the EU we were only given extended time to perform our duties for our Canadian employer in the EU country. It clearly stated that we did not have access to public funds etc... Also because we are receiving our salaries in our Canadian bank accounts being paid by our Canadian employer, we do not file income taxes in the EU country of our stay.

I cannot say with any authority but only sumize that the arrangements are similar for the EU visitors flying for SWG. They have visas to enter as you know. Question: Do they have access to public funds when they are here? I doubt it.
I expect that they are being paid at home by their respective employers as we are here in Canada. I would imagine that they are paying taxes in their home country.

I could be very wrong, but I doubt they have a tax obligation to Canada under their arrangement.

[termerair]

I expect that they are being paid at home by their respective employers as we are here in Canada. I would imagine that they are paying taxes in their home country.

This was my understanding as well... My european friend flies for Canjet and gets paid in Europe. i could find out more if needed!

T.

[Gilles Hudicourt]

I knew of a European charter airline that was based in a EU country. Most of its pilots were hired on contract through a contracting company based in the island of Jersey (a tax haven). Theses same pilots received their pay in a bank account in the Isle of Man, another tax haven, and they did charters throughout Europe and overseas. The pilots were always rotated every six months from one European base to another, to avoid reaching some threshold written in some EU tax legislation somewhere.

Although such practices seem common in Europe, they do not exist here in Canada yet. All I am aware of, is that as a Canadian pilot flying for a Canadian charter airline, I am taxed through the nose and there seems to be a group of people doing the same job as I do, for a couple other Canadian charter airlines, that do not seem to pay any taxes in this country (unless someone proves me wrong).

Is it right ? Does it create a level playing field ?

According to Canadian legislation, foreign crew members who come to Canada at the controls of foreign wet-leased aircraft can enter Canada according to R186 (s) ( http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/regu ... ml#docCont) of the IRPR. This means that they DO NOT require a work permit and do not need to pay any form of income taxes in Canada.

Those that come under reciprocity or under an LMO (R203 and R205 (b) of the IRPR) to fly Canadian Registered aircraft or Foreign registered dry-leased aircraft do require a work permit, also need to be employees of those airlines, and to the best of my knowledge, should be declaring Canadian Revenue to the CRA.

The vast majority of Sunwing crews who went to Europe, and that includes 100% of those who went to Europe in 2012, went there as Wet-Lease crew-members and as such do not need to declare or pay any income taxes in Europe. The reason they may need a EU work permit is because, unlike the Foreign pilots who come to Canada and who are engaged in strictly International air travel, (Canada to overseas destinations and back), the Sunwing pilots who go to Europe on Wet-Leases are engaged in European domestic flights (EU members countries to other to EU member countries), but they are still considered wet-lease foreign crews.

So although I agree that the Travel Service Czech wet-lease crews that come to Canada are exempt from work Permits (as long as they only are engaged in international flights) and are exempt from declaring revenue to the CRA, I think that all the others who come to Canada to fly Sunwing aircraft, meaning all those for which a work permit is required, should be declaring revenue to the CRA.

They require a work permit to come to Canada. They have a Canadian income, even if that income goes through banks in Jersey and the Isle of Man that the CRA never sees (figure of speech). They cannot then pose as Wet-Lease crews that receive their paychecks in their home country.

That some of these foreign pilots may come from a country that has a tax treaty with Canada which will avoid paying any income taxes in two countries is a separate issue that should be treated on a case by case basis.

My two cents on the subject anyway. I'm just an airline pilot. Why I am forced to study Immigration law, Transport law and now Tax Law ? Shouldn't other people than me be doing this ?

[ea306]

All I can tell you is last year when some of us worked in Belgium with a Work Permit and a License Validation and as "a contract employee" under JetAirFly's Operational Control.... Belgium which happens to be the highest taxed country in the EU did not require us to file income taxes as we were paid in Canada and paid taxes here. We were however required an Immigration Visa. Then again Belgium was running for over a year without a government...lol.

[OPEC6-Heavy]

the Sunwing pilots who go to Europe on Wet-Leases are engaged in European domestic flights (EU members countries to other to EU member countries), but they are still considered wet-lease foreign crews.

Not 100% correct. EU-North Africa flights as-well.

[ea306]

Not only Europe & Eastern Europe exclusively, but North Africa and Western Asia as well. Turkey in Euroasia & Isreal in Asia...