Air Transat

[av8tor_assrope]

http://www.montrealgazette.com/business ... story.html

Hmmmmm....this accordion fleet you speak of sounds awfully familiar to another companies business model?

[IflyaSewerpipe]

If you can't beat em, join em.

[Gilles Hudicourt]

I don't think so........

[mbav8r]

It really depends on how they crew their winter fleet, whether they wet lease or hire seasonal Canadians remains to be seen. One thing is certain, it was predicted that other comapnies would be forced to compete on the same level of Scumwing and to a lesser extent CanJet. The fact that we have not heard of any measures taken by Sunwings unions to prevent use of foreign crew, tells me that they didn't. Looking out for number one is what this business is all about, unfortunately!

[Gilles Hudicourt]

Which reminds me I should look at the Sunwing agreement to see what it says about foreign pilots if anything.....

[Gilles Hudicourt]

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/04/04 ... 14197.html

Air Transat New Planes: Carrier To Add Boeing 737 To Its Fleet


MONTREAL - Transat A.T. says it could turn to foreign pilots during its busy seasons after it begins to operate flights to sun destinations next year and change the composition of its fleet.

Air Transat, the travel company's airline, will add Boeing B737 narrow-body jets to its fleet, currently comprised of Airbus A310 and A330 wide-body aircraft, the company said Thursday.

Transat (TSX:TRZ.B) said five leased narrow-body aircraft will be added to the fleet on a permanent basis, while six others secured possibly from foreign airlines will be used on a seasonal basis in winter when travel from Canada to sun destinations is high.

Air Transat's wide-body fleet, which operates on the transatlantic market on an annual basis, will continue to serve certain sun destinations as well.

The vacation company said that by 2015 the number of wide-body aircraft will be reduced to 16 from 21 aircraft with third-party carriers contracted if required during the high season.

Since 2003, it has contracted other companies to provide planes for many of its southern routes, with the most recent being Nova Scotia-based CanJet. Their contract comes to an end in April 30, 2014 but Transat expects to maintain its business relationship with CanJet.

Last year, Transat, Air Canada, WestJet and the Air Line Pilots Association, which represents Air Transat pilots, complained to the federal government about rival Sunwing's extensive use of foreign pilots at substantially lower costs. They said resorting to foreign planes should be an exception but have become an important feature of Sunwing's business model.

Transat spokeswoman Debbie Cabana says the company will make efforts to continue to employ Canadian pilots but conceded that relying on a few foreign pilots is a possibility.

"Canadian fleets should always comprise a substantial majority of Canadian pilots and crews so with our internationalization if necessary we will use a minority of foreign pilots but they will be hired through existing government programs," she said.

Transat said it can improve its profitability by gaining flexibility through an accordion fleet model that can be adjusted according to market demand.

Air Transat recently won concessions from pilots, flight attendants and others that are expected to sharply trim operating costs.

For example, Air Transat's more than 1,700 flight attendants agreed to some $9-million in non-wage concessions to help it meet increasing competition in the holiday travel industry. A key element will see the number of attendants on A330 airliners reduced to 10 from 11.

Transat said Thursday that internalization of medium-haul operations, including the impact of the employee agreements, should generate savings of some $8 million in 2013, $15 million in 2014 and $30 million a year in 2015 and beyond.

Those are important for the airline as the Montreal-based carrier faces increasing competition, including from Air Canada's (TSX:AC.B) newly formed low-cost carrier Rouge.

“A return to profitability remains our primary goal, and operating costs, particularly air costs, are an essential factor in profitability for any tour operator," stated CEO Jean-Marc Eustache.

He said operating its own flights will increase control over its aviation operations, implement a more competitive cost structure and have Air Transat cabin crews on all flights.

The addition of narrow-body aircraft won't increase Air Transat employment because of the number of larger planes that will be removed from the fleet.

But the company said operating the narrow body planes will allow the company to stabilize jobs by reducing seasonal layoffs.

Benoit Poirier of Desjardins Capital Markets said the news "demonstrates the company’s effective execution of its cost-cutting initiatives."

He said the savings from the new fleet — which the company expects will reach $18 million, in addition to $12 million from union concessions in 2015 — could add 53 cents per share in earnings. He estimates the impact will be 14 cents per share in 2013 and 27 cents per share in 2014.

On the Toronto Stock Exchange, Transat's shares gained 18 cents, or 3.8 per cent, at $4.88 in Thursday afternoon trading.

This issue should have been resolved last winter. Now we are in April 2013 and it is still not resolved.

What is the government waiting for to put a plug on this non sense once and for all ?

We need assurance NOW that no airline will have foreign pilots next winter or this is the beginning of a race to the bottom for which we all pay dearly.

Those who are on the sidelines WAKE UP !

[mbav8r]

This is a sad, sad day, how long before Air Canada follows suit. I'm sure they could claim there are no 320 or 67 rated Canadian pilots available. Well I was hoping to get another 20 years out of this forsaken industry, now what was the name of that truck driving school, oh yeah I already have that licence, guess I'll need to use it again.
Could always hope it's posturing on the part of Transat, why else would they draw attention to this so early, here's hoping the government wakes up.
I won't vote conservative ever, ever again!

[Gilles Hudicourt]

Sunwing Agreement: Clauses that regard Foreign pilots:

6.9 Foreign Flight Crew Members
6.9.1 The Company may contract Foreign Flight Crew Members subject to the following conditions:
a) Foreign Flight Crew Members will not be used when any full time Flight Crew Member is furloughed;
b) Foreign Flight Crew Members will be subject to the scheduling rules of this Agreement;
c) The Company will endeavor not to contract more Foreign Flight Crew Member Captains than Foreign Flight Crew Member First Officers. The Company will have meaningful consultation with the Union if there is a need to bring in more Foreign Flight Crew Member Captains than Foreign Flight Crew Member First Officers. The Company will ensure that all qualified First Officers have been upgraded if Foreign Flight Crew Member Captains exceed Foreign Flight Crew Member First Officers.
d) Each Foreign Flight Crew Member must wear a uniform consistent with his/her status;
e) The Company will only contract a Foreign Flight Crew Member for the winter season.
6.9.2 The Union will receive a monthly sum of $35.00 per month for each Foreign Flight Crew Member that is not a member of a bargaining unit as a mentoring allowance. This amount will be prorated for partial months beginning upon their first line indoctrination flight.

6.10 Wet Leasing - Outside Operators
6.10.1 A Wet Lease is the Company contracting another carrier to supply aircraft and crew which is not on the Company’s Air Operator’s Certificate (AOC).
6.10.2 No Flight Crew Member will be displaced from a Permanent Base Position due to the Company Wet Leasing an aircraft into a Permanent Base.
6.10.3 The Company shall discuss the plans to Wet Lease aircraft and advise the Union of the crewing requirements associated.

There are six pages that concern foreign deployments to fly Sunwing aircraft (wet-Leases) but about Foreign deployments to fly foreign registered aircraft there is this

16.18 Working for a Foreign Operator (Foreign Registered Aircraft)
16.18.1 Any deployment on a foreign registered aircraft will require the company to negotiate an LOU prior to commencing the operation

.

So nothing in there to limit foreign crews in any manner.....

6.9 (c) says no more foreign Captains than foreign F/O. But if they want to do it anyway, please consult us first. If if you do, make sure that all upgradable Canadian F/Os are upgraded first.

So is it ok or not for Sunwing to bring in more foreign Captains than foreign F/Os ?

How about clauses about not bringing in more foreign crews than you have Canadian crews ? That would have been an improvement over the status quo. In fact, maybe a clause that puts a percentage cap on foreign crews with an annual reduction of the percentage over several years ? Nope.

[scopiton]

do you know if AT's union will do something concerning this issue ?

[Gilles Hudicourt]

do you know if AT's union will do something concerning this issue ?

Well it's ALPA's position that LMOs are not acceptable, there is no shortage of pilots in Canada and obtaining foreign pilots under an LMO to gain a financial advantage is not acceptable
It's also ALPA's position that reciprocity is OK on a 1:1 basis.
(don't blow a fuse Dan, I am not speaking for ALPA I am quoting you)

There are however two monkey wrenches:

In order to have the reciprocity that ALPA supports, Canadian pilots must be able to go fly European Aircraft on Validated Licences and foreign pilots must be able to come to Canada and fly Canadian Aircraft on a FLVC. However:

1) EASA modified its regulations on Sept 17, 2012 where non EU pilots can only get their non EU licence validated once, and its never renewable, so there is no way to have any on-going reciprocal agreement with such legislation.

2) CAR 705.106(1)(a) does not allow foreign licensed pilots to fly the line in Canada, so this prevents any legal reciprocal agreement also.

In light of these obstacles, I fail to see how any foreign pilots can come and fly Canadian registered aircraft in the first place. Unless of course we begin playing by Sunwing rules.....

[Gilles Hudicourt]

And another shameful press headline:

Transat pourrait recourir à des pilotes étrangers

http://affaires.lapresse.ca/economie/tr ... angers.php

[scopiton]

that was the meaning of my question it wasn't very clear sorry : do you think your union's rep @ Air Transat, and the pilot group, will try to do something to prevent this to happen in their own company ?

[Jean-Luc Monette]

I find it amazing the speed at which some journalists have come up with such incendiary titles, merely hours after the Transat press release, yet none of them is willing to write about the core issues, pertaining to the foreign pilots, as Gilles as brought to light during the last year or so...

Makes you wonder, doesn't it?

[Gilles Hudicourt]

that was the meaning of my question it wasn't very clear sorry : do you think your union's rep @ Air Transat, and the pilot group, will try to do something to prevent this to happen in their own company ?

I cannot speak for them, but do you think they can successfully fight to prevent Air Transat from making use of foreign pilots and foreign wet-leases when they were unsuccessful in having the practice stopped by the competition ?

A Union's goal is supposed to protect its members against the the employer, not against the competition.
Foreign Pilots is a national problem which falls under the mandate of National Unions, such as the ALPA Canada Board, CAW etc.

Have these national Unions done enough ? How much harm must we suffer before it becomes a national priority ? What will it it take for all Canadian Pilots to become concerned and and unite against the practice ?

Now if Air Transat begins to bring in foreign pilots and foreign wet-leases, it becomes a problem for the Air Transat pilot's Union. But Air Transat will use the same arguments Sunwing, Canjet, and Westjet used with their pilots: the foreign pilots and foreign wet-leases are necessary for the financial survival of the company and job security comes first from working for a profitable company. Transat can easily demonstrate that they have been loosing money against Sunwing and that by adopting the Sunwing model they can come back to profitability. What can the Union reply to that ?

There is only one solution: No foreign pilots for anyone.

In any case the FLVC are not legal for flying revenue flights under 705. But if Canjet does it and Sunwing does it, why not Transat ?

[FlyGy]

Shrug, after the spectacular service and flight I had to Huatulco from Edmonton in February I don't really care how they conduct their business, I'm going to try to make all of my vacation getaways an Air Transat destination.

[TFTMB heavy]

I'm pretty sure that TS can't use more seasonal narrow bodies than the number of permanent ones. As for the wide body work, it's protected to a certain % under a different LOU, no numbers off the top of my head right now. Maybe someone else has then on writing...

[RogerCheckCopy]

Gilles:

I hope this is not your real everyday attitude:

A Union's goal is supposed to protect its members against the the employer, not against the competition.

You are fighting globalization. Good luck.