The Air Canada OTS thread

[FAD3C]

Does anyone know what got offered on the last PIT?

[speedah]

6 767 rouge
4 767 mainline
2 319 rouge
2 EMJ

[Transition9er2]

Any information available on the Nov 11th class size?

T

[21cdnflyer]

https://montrealgazette.com/business/lo ... 350-pilots

Air Canada will look to hire up to 350 pilots next year, as soon as global transport regulators have cleared the Boeing 737 Max to resume service.

The Boeing narrow-body jet has been grounded worldwide since March following two deadly crashes — in Indonesia and Ethiopia — that occurred more than four months apart. Air Canada, which had 24 of the planes in its fleet at the time of the grounding, has removed them from its schedule until at least Feb. 14.

Canada’s biggest airline is training its 400 or so pilots assigned to the 737 Max in a flight simulator to prepare for the aircraft’s re-entry into service, chief executive officer Calin Rovinescu said Tuesday. With 26 additional jets scheduled for delivery next year, the company will need to step up pilot recruitment, the CEO added.

“We will take prudent steps on hiring” to prepare for the return of the 737 Max, Rovinescu said on a call with financial analysts. “We would hope that the ungrounding occurs soon.”

Boeing is continuing to work on fixes for the 737 Max, and has now entered the “final stages” of the recertification process, chief executive officer Dennis Muilenburg told U.S. senators at a hearing in Washington Tuesday. The plane will return to the skies “when everyone is convinced it’s safe,” Muilenburg said after apologizing to the families of the victims.

Southwest Airlines, the U.S. discount carrier that is the largest operator of the 737 Max, recently extended the removal of the jet from its fleet to Feb. 8. American Airlines, which is banking on a return of the plane by mid-January, said last week the prolonged grounding would trim annual pretax profit by $540 million.

Due in part to costs associated with the grounding of the 737 Max, Air Canada’s third-quarter net income fell about nine per cent to $636 million. Operating expenses climbed two per cent to $4.6 billion, the company said Tuesday.

Air Canada took several steps to make up for the absence of the 737 Max. It extended leases for Airbus A320 and Embraer E190 jets, which resulted in higher maintenance expenses, and deployed some aircraft operated by its Rouge low-cost unit on routes that would normally have been served by the 737 Max. It also delayed repainting planes and installing Wi-Fi on the entire fleet until the situation has been settled, chief financial officer Michael Rousseau said.

All told, Air Canada will probably need up to a year to put all 50 of its 737 Max aircraft back in operation, Rovinescu said.

“This is not an overnight process,” he said. “You would not see the incremental capacity from 50 aircraft flooding the market in the first few months of 2020.”

Although airlines worldwide are facing a pilot shortage, Air Canada is confident of hitting the recruitment target due in part to the success it has met in luring pilots from other carriers, Rovinescu said. The company can also count on an agreement with its feeder carriers, Sky Regional and Jazz, to promote pilots to the mainline.

“Think of it as a farm system,” Rovinescu said. The deal “provides a good base for future pilot flow.”

Air Canada has been looking at alternative scenarios if the 737 Max remains grounded for longer than expected. Options include performing maintenance work on some older aircraft to ensure they continue to operate “well into next year,” Rovinescu said. The company has a large number of contingency planes available, he added.

[CZBBYYZPilot]

That's 350 737 pilots, not total new hires. The news media has reported a hiring freeze, which is technically not true, there just hasn't been anyone hired into 737 positions.

[Dry Guy]

Yeah I talked to my parents and they mentioned they saw the 'big news' that they are hiring 350 next year and I was like that's disappointing I thought it'd be more like 500+.

[goingnowherefast]

I had the impression it was 350 onto the max and just the max. That excludes the number hired for every other type.

[altiplano]

The last crew requirement bulletin and position bid was about 250 seats open on the 737 alone.

Some guys bailed off though to other seats in the bid, so about 350 needing to be trained, new hire or off other fleets to have the airplanes all crewed when it gets going again.

Same bulletin was 800+ vacancies company wide, that was a couple months back... probably still 500-600+ positions open moving into next year.

[Art Garfunkel]

I heard only 8 for the Nov 11 course

[Shinyjetsyndrome]

With the massive amount of pilots being hired all at the same time recently (especially young guys in their 20's), would it still be worth pursuing Air Canada if meeting the requirements is still about 3-5 years away? I kind of feel like I missed the boat and seniority is going to be the bane of my existence with so many younger people ahead of me ie: my number will stay relatively constant compared to people hired now who are able to take advantage of the retirements and massive growth to get into a much cushier position earlier. This also has pretty big implications on retirement too. I wonder if WJ might be a better move as their pilot group starts to age and given their potential expansion opportunities with 787's, etc. There's a couple issues I can think of like uncertainty with Onex, no pension and lower pay, but it might end up being more in the end if I can't even move up within AC's ranks.

[PostmasterGeneral]

With the massive amount of pilots being hired all at the same time recently (especially young guys in their 20's), would it still be worth pursuing Air Canada if meeting the requirements is still about 3-5 years away? I kind of feel like I missed the boat and seniority is going to be the bane of my existence with so many younger people ahead of me ie: my number will stay relatively constant compared to people hired now who are able to take advantage of the retirements and massive growth to get into a much cushier position earlier. This also has pretty big implications on retirement too. I wonder if WJ might be a better move as their pilot group starts to age and given their potential expansion opportunities with 787's, etc. There's a couple issues I can think of like uncertainty with Onex, no pension and lower pay, but it might end up being more in the end if I can't even move up within AC's ranks.

Seriously? If your concern is "moving up in the ranks" then WestJet is about the absolute LAST place you wanna be.

[21cdnflyer]

Calls going out for December 2nd class.

[BenniFlyer]

With the massive amount of pilots being hired all at the same time recently (especially young guys in their 20's), would it still be worth pursuing Air Canada if meeting the requirements is still about 3-5 years away? I kind of feel like I missed the boat and seniority is going to be the bane of my existence with so many younger people ahead of me ie: my number will stay relatively constant compared to people hired now who are able to take advantage of the retirements and massive growth to get into a much cushier position earlier. This also has pretty big implications on retirement too. I wonder if WJ might be a better move as their pilot group starts to age and given their potential expansion opportunities with 787's, etc. There's a couple issues I can think of like uncertainty with Onex, no pension and lower pay, but it might end up being more in the end if I can't even move up within AC's ranks.

Seriously? If your concern is "moving up in the ranks" then WestJet is about the absolute LAST place you wanna be.

You could explain yourself a bit better postmaster. You’re coming off a bit rude for no reason. He’s just trying to think ahead of the curve...yes lots of retirements coming now at AC which has lead to a massive amount of hiring lately...WJ has quite a few that should retire in about 10-15 years, so I think he’s looking ahead to be on board before all of that potential hiring. No problem with speculating that for his/her career.

[bearitus]

Calls going out for December 2nd class.

Thanks for the update. I'm guessing that's the last class scheduled to start in 2019?

[Transition9er2]

Calls going out for December 2nd class.

Any confirmed info regarding class size for the Nov 11th class and now the Dec 2nd class?

T

[landshark]

I’m guessing 10-20 - I don’t think they’ll be in the 30-50 range. Training report shows 330RP and 220 spots now.

[Victory]

With lots of hiring from Jazz and Captain positions now being awarded to people in their second year I was wondering does AC have Captains in their 20s?

[Oxi]

Plenty of new captains between 25-30 on mainline/rouge bus, embraer and max

[prob30]

Hi everyone!

Thanks for all the useful information, I'm new here and was wondering how long it takes to get initial interviews these days? I understand many of you have already passed the selection and are waiting on start dates. There was mention that your application gets put into a matrix? would anyone happen to know how they score candidates?

Ive been flying abroad for many years and am looking to return home. My experience is 6000 Hours TT with 4000 Hours wide bodied jet as FO. I do realise that things might be slowing down and they might not call for an interview anytime soon.

Thanks!

[Oxi]

Any Cathy, Emirates and the like coming to AC will be forced onto the open 777 and 787 spots and doing the same job for 60.06$ an hour.