If there is a pilot shortage in Canada, one would logically assume the 'crappy' 703 jobs would have trouble finding people long before the 705 jet companies would.boeingboy wrote: ↑Wed Jul 06, 2022 6:45 pmBut there is a pilot shortage.....you just made that clear. It's not just Sunwing who's short - it's all the airlines. The entire airline system in Canada is in chaos.Sunwing needs to hire approximately 150 pilots to crew for the winter season. This doesn't take into account the fact that many at Sunwing are leaving for Air Canada, Flair, and other opportunities. Significantly, the recent upgrade process at Sunwing for 20 spots magically went all the way to the bottom of the seniority list, whereby well over 30 qualified applicants were bypassed for generic reasons. Clearly Sunwing did this in order to show the government that there is a pilot shortage and they need foreign pilots.
Yea - The upgrade thing sure makes you wonder - but if they did upgrade the 20 FO's to captains - then you just need 20 more FO's - it doesn't change the fact you still need over 150 pilots. We go from 16 of our own A/C to over 40 (all leases). Who's going to fly them? In short - if they can't hire and train them fast enough to replace those that have left (or are leaving) then you still have a business to run and have to do what you can.
You can't blame everything on the company.
But if you have to take a 50% paycut to go from a crappy 703 to a fancy 705, you can most definitely blame the 705 for its inability to find people.
Especially if the budget is there to pay foreign workers MORE than local pilots!!