Cargojet Vs. Morningstar

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Blueontop
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Cargojet Vs. Morningstar

Post by Blueontop »

Branching off the previous thread, given the choice what would be better between these two? QOL, WAWCONS, upgrade wait times, per diems, average time away from base/days worked a month?

Lot of this stuff already answered for CJ but didn’t want to thread drift and comparing these two is better for an 🍎 to 🍎 comparison
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Invertago
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Re: Cargojet Vs. Morningstar

Post by Invertago »

I think the summary is this:

CJT:
Work harder, get more overtime take home more $
Multiple contracts = more security
Greater route variety and many international layovers
Some day flying
YHM and YVR base and better commuting options

MAL
Work less, less pay, less overtime (although they are ironically understaffed so still more overtime then many want)
Easier more routine domestic routes over and over, easy but boring
Single really awesome contract with FedEx but all the eggs in one basket so less security.
All night flying unless you want to switch over to the turboprop side and take the pay cut.
YYZ base only


MAL looks like the old married guy place to settle down. CJT has a lot more adventure to offer the younger single type who wants to see the world a bit is the big take away.
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Goofygoober
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Re: Cargojet Vs. Morningstar

Post by Goofygoober »

Great info above, perhaps for anyone looking for more specific info on each of the operations:

1. Average days worked? Layovers and length of said layovers?

2. Pairing lengths and what tends to go jr vs sr? (From the sounds of it Morningstar is basically just take what they give you, which I imagine would be a deterrent for pilots who enjoy having control of their schedule)

3. Upgrade times?

4. General morale on the line

5. MAL seems to be strictly night ops, but looking at flight tracker over the last week there definitely seems to be some day flying for CJ, if someone were wanting to bid for more day flying then the average cargo gig, would there be a chance they get it?

6. With CJ flying both the 57/67, do pilots find themselves flying both fairly often or just one specifically?

7. Any sort of flight benefits with pax airlines?

And anything else that current employees can think of to throw in here. I’ve tried looking up info on other threads and CBA’s online but I agree with this thread in having a nice cargo carrier comparison in one place for people considering that career route.
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Chaxterium
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Re: Cargojet Vs. Morningstar

Post by Chaxterium »

The following is for Morningstar.
Goofygoober wrote: Thu Apr 06, 2023 10:59 am 1. Average days worked? Layovers and length of said layovers?
On the FO side they're quite busy. Usually one trip per week plus a reserve shift. So a trip will start on a Monday night around midnight and you'll be home Wednesday morning around 2-4am. Then you'll be on reserve again that night. On the captain side we had less reserve.
Goofygoober wrote: Thu Apr 06, 2023 10:59 am 2. Pairing lengths and what tends to go jr vs sr? (From the sounds of it Morningstar is basically just take what they give you, which I imagine would be a deterrent for pilots who enjoy having control of their schedule)
We have one one day trip which is a Calgary day run there and back but other than that everything is 2-5 days. Most trips are two nights and one day. So you leave home in the evening, work all night, sleep in the day, then work all night the next night. We have one trip that's 3 nights/two days where the last night you're back in Toronto by 11:30pm ish.

We do have a few 4 or 5 day trips but those are weekend trips and they're actually pretty sweet. We do weekends in Vancouver, Calgary, and Montreal. We fly in on the Thursday or Friday night and then sit at the hotel until Sunday or Monday night. You're not on call so you can head out to Banff, go skiing, visit friends, whatever.

You can count on one weekend trip every one to two months. Sometimes more.

There seems to be no rhyme or reason to who gets what pairings. There is no seniority bidding and it's supposed to be even. I'm not sure how accurate that is.

The MEC sent out an email a couple weeks ago stating that they expect a bidding system to be in place in about a year but no decisions have been made yet as to whether it will be seniority based or not. The company has said that they're leaving that decision up to the pilots.
Goofygoober wrote: Thu Apr 06, 2023 10:59 am 3. Upgrade times?
I got the call at 1.5 years. But things have slowed down. And they lowered the upgrade minimums so I could see it being more in the 3-4 year range now.
Goofygoober wrote: Thu Apr 06, 2023 10:59 am 4. General morale on the line
Could be better.
Goofygoober wrote: Thu Apr 06, 2023 10:59 am
5. MAL seems to be strictly night ops, but looking at flight tracker over the last week there definitely seems to be some day flying for CJ, if someone were wanting to bid for more day flying then the average cargo gig, would there be a chance they get it?
MAL has a couple day runs. It's nice to see the sun every now and then.
Goofygoober wrote: Thu Apr 06, 2023 10:59 am 7. Any sort of flight benefits with pax airlines?
Nope.

Overall the company is decent. They were great to me. The training was the best I've ever received. Maintenance is excellent. On the bad side, the nights are long and the flying is incredibly boring.
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