DEC Westjet Swoop

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Longtimer
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DEC Westjet Swoop

Post by Longtimer »

WestJet Group of Companies Direct Entry Captain (Swoop positions)SAVE

Swoop
Toronto, ON
Apply on Glassdoor
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5 days agoFull–time
Why WestJet:

Every WestJet journey has the potential to enrich lives; a career with us is no exception.

WestJet arrived on the Canadian airline scene in 1996 and changed the industry for the better. We made air travel more affordable for Canadians and now we're going global.

Join us and love where you’re going.

Overview of the role:

The WestJet Group of Companies is currently looking to fill Direct Entry Captain positions within our Swoop (YEG and YYZ) division. Our pilots provide safe and efficient air travel across an expansive network creating a memorable travel experience for our guests while working among one of Canada’s most admired and respected corporate cultures.

Key deliverables include:
• The ability to follow standard operating procedures: ensuring the safety of our crew and guests
• Lead by example, demonstrating honesty and integrity
• The ability to work within a dynamic team environment and communicate effectively
• Flexible and adaptable to respond to the changing demands of the operation and business
• Professional and committed to upholding WestJet values

Swoop Direct Entry Captain (737) minimum experience and qualifications:
• 5000 hours total time
• 2000 hours on Transport Category aircraft with 500 hours on Transport Category jet aircraft
• 1000 hours multi-crew experience
• Transport Canada Airline Transport Pilot Licence (ATPL)
• Valid Transport Canada Instrument Rating
• Valid Transport Canada Category 1 Medical Certificate
• Legally entitled to work in Canada
• Current valid passport and Canadian Permanent Resident Card if you are not a holder of a Canadian passport
• All required visas or travel documents allowing you to freely travel unrestricted
• Restricted Area Identification Card (RAIC) obtained prior to the completion of Initial Ground School
• Clear police background and criminal record check
• Offers of employment are conditional on passing a pre-employment alcohol and drug screening test
• Oral and written proficiency in English
• * Preference will be given to candidates with qualifications beyond the basic requirements.

The benefits of working among the WestJet Group of Companies:

The WestJet Group of Companies provides a competitive total rewards package. On top of that, we offer:
• A fun and friendly culture with colleagues who work together to win
• Travel privileges for you and your family, effective from your start date
• Savings and Benefit programs that are flexible to meet your specific needs

Think we are a fit? Apply now!

About WestJet Group of Companies

Together with WestJet's regional airline, WestJet Encore, we offer scheduled service to more than 100 destinations in North America, Central America, the Caribbean and Europe and to more than 175 destinations in over 20 countries through our airline partnerships.

Our Safety Promise

At WestJet, the safety and security of our people and our guests is a core value and at the heart of what we do. As safety and security is a shared responsibility, it is expected that you will use safe work practices to ensure your well-being and the safety of others.

WestJet recognizes that the use of Alcohol and Drugs can adversely impact a safe work environment and the well-being of others including guests, suppliers and the public, as well as place WestJet's operations at risk. All roles that are identified as safety sensitive are required to pass a Pre-Employment Alcohol and Drug Test as per WestJet's Alcohol and Drug Policy.

As a federally regulated company, the WestJet group of companies is required to comply with all federal mandates. In order to be compliant with the recently-announced vaccination mandate, and to keep our guests/employees safe, all employees will be required to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 as a condition of employment.

Our Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion

We embrace what makes us each unique, and what makes us uniquely WestJet. WestJet is committed to inclusiveness, equity, and accessibility and if you require accommodation during the selection process, please let our Talent Acquisition team know. We encourage all qualified candidates to apply. We thank all applicants for their interest in WestJet; however, only those candidates who are selected will be contacted.

For more information about everything WestJet, please visit WestJet.com.

#LI-CF1
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Col. Panic
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Re: DEC Westjet Swoop

Post by Col. Panic »

Does it pay better than what I made as a King Air captain 10 years ago?
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imjustlurking
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Re: DEC Westjet Swoop

Post by imjustlurking »

It seems that not enough WJA pilots are willing to make the switch, nor Encore management willing to allow enough flow to fill the positions.

I smell a lot of pissed off pilots and management with hands tied due to poor decisions already made.
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FL030
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Re: DEC Westjet Swoop

Post by FL030 »

For some reason I thought all Swoop pilots were OTS. They actually got WestJet pilots to switch to Swoop?
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Re: DEC Westjet Swoop

Post by Greasy Greaser »

FL030 wrote: Wed Jan 26, 2022 9:19 pm For some reason I thought all Swoop pilots were OTS. They actually got WestJet pilots to switch to Swoop?
There are a lot of WestJet pilots as Captains at Swoop. Slowly moving back to WJ though.
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Re: DEC Westjet Swoop

Post by CaptainHaddock »

Hundreds of qualified WJ/Encore pilots with way more experience then they are asking already on property, but they’d rather pay 50’c on the dollar and hire off the street and take what they can get. Every opportunity over the past 5 years they seem to take the shitty one. Depressing to watch.
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imjustlurking
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Re: DEC Westjet Swoop

Post by imjustlurking »

CaptainHaddock wrote: Mon Jan 31, 2022 6:50 pm Hundreds of qualified WJ/Encore pilots with way more experience then they are asking already on property, but they’d rather pay 50’c on the dollar and hire off the street and take what they can get. Every opportunity over the past 5 years they seem to take the shitty one. Depressing to watch.
I get your frustration... I'm frustrated too, but it's important to recognize the facts instead of slinging mud.

There is no way that enough Encore pilots could flow to Swoop to fill the positions. Sure, there are probably at least fifty people qualified and willing to go, but the issue is more complicated than that.

First, look at the schedules. Captains in Toronto are currently working 16-18 days per month whereas FOs are looking at 10-12. Training captains are flying nearly full blocks of training flights trying to get people back on the line.

In the past 24 months, those who are trying to flow now were the only Encorians still on the line. There are relatively few pilots who are able to fill the spots of those training captains who would be leaving. It's further exacerbated by the fact that when the training pilots flow (which would be a good chunk), the training department would be decimated.

More people might be willing to upgrade, apply for training positions, and pick up captain overtime if there was better compensation for the work, but that is controlled by the collective bargaining agreement. We are stuck with it for another year and a bit.

Don't get me wrong, I am not defending management here. They had a hard choice and they made it. We had a captain shortage prior to COVID and it's definitely been back for a few months already. We need to continue doing our jobs and communicating with our managers to remind them that the problem is stewing and the longer they wait, the harder and more expensive it will be to solve.
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Re: DEC Westjet Swoop

Post by CaptainHaddock »

What ‘hard choice’ did management have to make?. There are around 100 or so Swoop CA positions in the company, there are hundreds of WJ FO’s with close to a decades experience on the aircraft. WestJets/Encore crewing issues are totally their making-just like the short sighted terminating of call centre/CSA’s/AME’s. instead of furloughing so you could recall them. Contracting out I am sure looked great on paper, but has been a rolling disaster to operations and product.
I get that Encore is getting pinched by finding recruits and losing experienced Q operators to WJ due to Flo. The only problem Swoop has is it’s shitty pay/conditions-and that is wholly resolved by a pair of safety scissors and the 2 page LOU at the end of the WJ contract. Removing the Swoop LOU certainly makes Encore look at lot more attractive to a perspective applicant-knowing they don’t have to row through years of Swoop to get to WJ WAWCON.
Good discussion, I’m sure if/when all these airlines spool up the crewing issue will be a big part of each companies management meetings. It’s no surprise that AC has no crewing worries, and offer the best package for WAWCON.
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Re: DEC Westjet Swoop

Post by aerobod »

CaptainHaddock wrote: Tue Feb 01, 2022 11:37 am ....short sighted terminating of call centre/CSA’s/AME’s. instead of furloughing so you could recall them.
WS lobbied the Government to change federal employment rules to allow furloughing and recall of all non-union employees beyond 6 months. The Government would only allow an extension up to 30 Dec 2020. This meant that employees laid off from 31 Mar to 30 Sep either had to be fully restored into their original or equivalent positions by 30 Dec 2020 or terminated without cause / packaged out, there was no legal way to extend the furlough: https://www.thesafetymag.com/ca/topics/ ... ers/226143
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Re: DEC Westjet Swoop

Post by CaptainHaddock »

Good link, but I don’t buy it. Bases like YYJ,YHZ,etc were stilled staffed and running when they were converted to contract workers-
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Re: DEC Westjet Swoop

Post by Mach1 »

Imagine, if you will, what would happen if you opened an airline with pilot pay (that was fought for and won by the company) so low that nobody came to work there? What would the company do?

Try to force it's pilots into that airline? (They did) What if that failed? (It did)

Force it's regional pilots into that airline? (They are trying) What if that failed? (It is failing)

Hire from outside? Yes, that seems to be where we are in the story so far. So, having many new and exciting choices all paying more than this pink atrocity, what if no one came from outside? Would they raise the pay and improve the working conditions? Shut the place down?

I don't think they would shut it down because that would be admitting a mistake was made, and the one thing management can not do under any circumstances, up to and including bankrupting a company, is admit they made a mistake. Even the bankruptcy will be blamed on others.

You have entered the executive zone.
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Re: DEC Westjet Swoop

Post by co-joe »

All I know is that If I were laid off at Encore right now and saw Westjet Swoop hiring pilots off the street I'd be furious.
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Re: DEC Westjet Swoop

Post by aerobod »

CaptainHaddock wrote: Tue Feb 01, 2022 5:10 pm Good link, but I don’t buy it. Bases like YYJ,YHZ,etc were stilled staffed and running when they were converted to contract workers-
The layoff rules for non-union employees definitely had to be followed due to the Government requirements, with those employees being a high proportion of the 6,900 of 14,000 employees let go overall. I have a lot of friends who fell into that group. Small base employee numbers certainly dropped. I’m sure the viability of keeping the dwindling numbers at those bases in-house led to the decision of only staffing in-house at the larger bases and out-sourcing the rest. Such are the issues that affected the whole company, unfortunately. Certainly a proportional number of managers were let go, too.

My friends at Air Canada also had similar issues in non-union areas, with IT being my main area of expertise, operations at WS and AC in IT are still very fraught and under staffed. Most of those laid off found other jobs, so there are now just a lot of open positions (IT alone at WS had 80 open positions they couldn’t fill when I last checked before Christmas, a significant portion of the dept). I actually left WS in 2018, but was consulting at AC when virtually all contractors had force majeure applied to contracts in Mar 2020 and received a courtesy 2 weeks notice.
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Re: DEC Westjet Swoop

Post by imjustlurking »

co-joe wrote: Tue Feb 01, 2022 11:16 pm All I know is that If I were laid off at Encore right now and saw Westjet Swoop hiring pilots off the street I'd be furious.
All laid off Encore pilots have a recall date or have resigned.

The ones who are have a March 1 recall date (last ones) never got on the line before COVID. If they're pissed that someone else got hired directly at Swoop, they need to take a reality check. They were all given 75% of the base salary from their layoff in April 2020 up until August 2021... all for doing essentially no work at WestJet group of companies.

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aerobod wrote: Tue Feb 01, 2022 1:29 pm
CaptainHaddock wrote: Tue Feb 01, 2022 11:37 am ....short sighted terminating of call centre/CSA’s/AME’s. instead of furloughing so you could recall them.
WS lobbied the Government to change federal employment rules to allow furloughing and recall of all non-union employees beyond 6 months. The Government would only allow an extension up to 30 Dec 2020. This meant that employees laid off from 31 Mar to 30 Sep either had to be fully restored into their original or equivalent positions by 30 Dec 2020 or terminated without cause / packaged out, there was no legal way to extend the furlough: https://www.thesafetymag.com/ca/topics/ ... ers/226143
The changes came into effect on June 22. These do not apply to employees who are covered by a collective agreement that contains recall rights and to employees whose employment had already been terminated before the coming into force of the amendments, says the government.
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Re: DEC Westjet Swoop

Post by co-joe »

imjustlurking wrote: Wed Feb 02, 2022 10:24 am
All laid off Encore pilots have a recall date or have resigned.

...
I didn't know that. I still find it hard to believe that nobody at Encore applied for a jet spot at Swoop. Perhaps that's why Encoreflowmoralelow?
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Re: DEC Westjet Swoop

Post by Canadaflyer46 »

Mach1 wrote: Tue Feb 01, 2022 8:52 pm Imagine, if you will, what would happen if you opened an airline with pilot pay (that was fought for and won by the company) so low that nobody came to work there? What would the company do?

Try to force it's pilots into that airline? (They did) What if that failed? (It did)

Force it's regional pilots into that airline? (They are trying) What if that failed? (It is failing)

Hire from outside? Yes, that seems to be where we are in the story so far. So, having many new and exciting choices all paying more than this pink atrocity, what if no one came from outside? Would they raise the pay and improve the working conditions? Shut the place down?

I don't think they would shut it down because that would be admitting a mistake was made, and the one thing management can not do under any circumstances, up to and including bankrupting a company, is admit they made a mistake. Even the bankruptcy will be blamed on others.

You have entered the executive zone.
Very, very well said. To make matters worse Westjet has been a rudderless ship for months now, no one seems to be in charge, and all accountability has gone. The disasters of December simply chalked up to Omicron.
I'm not sure why Imjustlurking feels so sympathetic of management and the "difficult decisions" they had to make. It's refreshing to see after years of Encore pilots being beaten down and treated like the lowest common denominator, that they seem to finally be standing up and demanding their worth.
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Re: DEC Westjet Swoop

Post by imjustlurking »

co-joe wrote: Wed Feb 02, 2022 12:35 pm
imjustlurking wrote: Wed Feb 02, 2022 10:24 am
All laid off Encore pilots have a recall date or have resigned.

...
I didn't know that. I still find it hard to believe that nobody at Encore applied for a jet spot at Swoop. Perhaps that's why Encoreflowmoralelow?
The way I understand it is that the transfer of pilots from Encore to Swoop or WestJet is covered by the PTA. I don't think the company would be able to hire an Encore pilot to Swoop through the normal application process.
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Re: DEC Westjet Swoop

Post by lostaviator »

Don’t worry everyone. Our new COO has an outstanding history of dealing with employee groups. Things will get better.
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Re: DEC Westjet Swoop

Post by kiaszceski »

lostaviator wrote: Mon Feb 07, 2022 12:51 pm Don’t worry everyone. Our new COO has an outstanding history of dealing with employee groups. Things will get better.
I’m sorry I’m new to this, genuine question.
Is this sarcastic?

What is his track records on resolving problems by avoiding “divide and conquer”?
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Re: DEC Westjet Swoop

Post by lostaviator »

Front page of any business news site (Europe section) will fill you in.

Google Wizz Air

Answer: sarcasm.
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