Pros and Cons of working at Sky Regional

[gravelpapi]

What is the First year base salary of an FO and Captain without Per Diem?

Any Health Benefits?

Max amount of days on a given pairing?

Upgrade times?

Typical days off per month?

Is there a bidding system in place?

What is the likely hood of being based in YUL vs YYZ?

Any hear say on potenital hiring plan for Fall/winter 2017/ early 2018?

Is commuting an option ?

[Cavalier44]

What is the First year base salary of an FO and Captain without Per Diem?

First year FO hourly rate is $48.63. We have a minimum monthly guarantee of 78 credit hours, that works out to a base salary of $45,517.68 annually.

For captains the first year hourly rate is $80.69, which works out to a base salary of $75,525.84 annually.

The amount of credit hours per month is typically around 85 at this time so you can expect to make more than the minimum pay.

Per diem rate is an additional $3.05/hour which is paid in USD if the flight is transborder.

Any Health Benefits?

Yes, health benefits are through Great West Life and are comparable to the benefits at other regionals such as Jazz and Encore.

Max amount of days on a given pairing?

Most pairing are 3 days, but there are some 2 day and single-day pairings as well.

Upgrade times?

Right now upgrades seem to be coming as quickly as a candidate can meet the internal requirements.

There is an internal experience matrix which the company uses to determine if an FO is upgradable. The absolute bare minimum is 3,500 hours total time, which would require you to have two consecutive years with the company. At 4,000 total time you require 750 hours on type, with 4,500 hours total time you would require 500 hours on type or 1,000 hours PIC in a transport category aircraft, and so on.

In the past upgrade times have averaged between 1-2 years depending on how many people are actually eligible to upgrade.

Typical days off per month?

There are 11 guaranteed days off per month, plus typically 2-3 "grey days" which are essentially days where no duty is assigned. The company cannot obligate you to work on a grey day so for all intents and purposes they're additional days off.

Is there a bidding system in place?

Yes, there is a socialized bidding system in place using Merlot.

What is the likely hood of being based in YUL vs YYZ?

All the hiring lately has been for the YYZ base. YUL has a history of being slightly overstaffed so it seems hiring for YUL is on more of an ad hoc basis depending on attrition.

Any hear say on potenital hiring plan for Fall/winter 2017/ early 2018?

I would expect the hiring to continue for the foreseeable future especially as we continue to lose pilots to mainline via the PML.

Is commuting an option ?

I know several people who have tried it with varying degrees of success. The schedules aren't built for commuting in mind, although you now have the option to be scheduled for a larger number of days in a row followed by a larger group of days off (I.e. Scheduled using the 3 in 17 rule). I haven't tried this personally but maybe a Sky Regional commuter can chime in with more details.

[mbav8r]

Cavalier44,
please provide details of your comparable benefits to Jazz, our benefits are better than AC by a long shot and cannot believe yours compare in anyway shape or form, unless you meant pales in comparison!
I'm really trying to make peace with the fact SR undercut us to our detriment but please don't exaggerate to make it appear better than it is!
Also why not post the second, third and fourth year salary? My understanding is you top out at three years at 2% per year and no raise after that, please correct me if I'm wrong.

[Cavalier44]

Cavalier44,
please provide details of your comparable benefits to Jazz, our benefits are better than AC by a long shot and cannot believe yours compare in anyway shape or form, unless you meant pales in comparison!
I'm really trying to make peace with the fact SR undercut us to our detriment but please don't exaggerate to make it appear better than it is!

I don't think I've exaggerated anything, in fact I deliberately attempted to remain unbiased and simply answer the original posters questions. I'll be the first person to tell you that Sky isn't perfect but I also have seen first hand a number of improvements in the past few years. I certainly don't believe Sky Regional is deserving of the amount of criticism it receives on this forum in particular.

I don't have the Jazz benefit booklet in front of me but I have had the opportunity read through it. Sky Regional's benefits through Great West Life come in three varieties, either a core plan, a base plan, or an enhanced plan, with the enhanced plan being the most expensive for the employee while providing the most coverage. This is the plan which would be most comparable to what Jazz offers.

I don't deny that Jazz has better benefits in some areas, I have no doubt that's the case. I'm not comparing airlines to say that one is better than the other, but the reality is that if you compare Air Canada, Jazz, Sky Regional, and WestJet (including Encore), among others, you'll find that in most key areas benefits for medical and dental are pretty similar.

Sky Regional also has a employee profit sharing plan which is paid out semi-annually, as well as a deferred profit sharing plan which is treated as a retirement fund along with RRSP.

Also why not post the second, third and fourth year salary? My understanding is you top out at three years at 2% per year and no raise after that, please correct me if I'm wrong.

Your information is out of date. The original poster asked for the first year salary so that's what I posted. The entire pay scale is as follows:

FO:
Year 1: $48.63/hr
Year 2: $49.74/hr
Year 3: $50.74/hr
Year 4: $51.74/hr
Year 5: $52.79/hr
Year 6: $53.83/hr
------------------------
Captain:
Year 1: $80.69/hr
Year 2: $82.55/hr
Year 3: $84.19/hr
Year 4: $85.89/hr
Year 5: $87.60/hr
Year 6: $89.36/hr
Year 7: $91.14/hr
Year 8: $92.97/hr

Note that the FO pay scale ends at year 6 while the captain pay scale ends at year 8. As the most senior Sky Regional pilots were hired in 2011, no one has 8 years of service yet. As the company matures and we start to have pilots who have been with the company for longer than that, I have no doubt the pay scales will be extended to reflect this. All this information is current as of the latest TOE revision in March 2017.

[gravelpapi]

Cavalier44,

Thank you for the insight and details.

Also is AC drafting FOs as well as captains to mainline via the PML? Or is it just Captains?

Cheers,

[Cavalier44]

Cavalier44,

Thank you for the insight and details.

Also is AC drafting FOs as well as captains to mainline via the PML? Or is it just Captains?

Cheers,

No problem at all.

Initially it was just captains, however my understanding is that AC has taken at least two FOs recently from Sky via the PML. I'm sure there will be more to come in the future as they move down the seniority list.

[rudder]

All this information is current as of the latest TOE revision in March 2017.

TOE? Most quote CBA's.

Hopefully SKY pilots will be doing that sooner rather than later.

[GATRKGA]

Edited.

[gravelpapi]

Thank you GATRKGA!

[yycinformer]

Pay: Min Credit FO month - 4k. Min Credit CA month - 6k. OT cheques as good as 6k/month as an FO, and 9k/month as Captain.

Just curious if these numbers are purely OT flying or more along the lines of per diem.

Thx

[800man]

Question for you YUL Skyregional types: While on your 5 days a month of standby, how often do you get called out for the absolute minimum 2 hour report time? I have a family and home just under 2 hours from the airport, but guessing parking, shuttle and security puts it at about 2 hrs 15 minutes. It's easy to do the drive for a 2 or 3 day pairing, but the standby might be an issue if it's a regular last minute thing. Can you negative bid standby? Can you bid them all together so maybe one would have to sit in the city by the phone in a hotel room?

[jpilot77]

Most of the time the standby is given out the night before, but I have been called out for a flight 2 hours before. I don't think you can negative bid standbys, also you can't bundle them together. Some months I get more than others though (I'm a YUL Capt.). We have AM and PM standbys now. I live outside of town but have family in town where I stay on AM standbys and back to back pairings. Hope this helps.

[800man]

Thanks. Good to know. It would be silly to do the 3 in 17 sched when I live so close but maybe. Family wouldn't be happy with me being gone that much. Hm, it would be a slam dunk of a job if not for the reserve. Too bad it isn't something that diappears with seniority.

[Jet Jockey]

Just to confirm the pay scale...

An eight year captain's salary on base flying credits of 78 hours/month makes a yearly salary of $87,020.

Is this to fly a Dash 8 or the Regional Jet?

[justwork]

Just to confirm the pay scale...

An eight year captain's salary on base flying credits of 78 hours/month makes a yearly salary of $87,020.

Is this to fly a Dash 8 or the Regional Jet?

I don't think they have Dash 8's anymore.

[Jet Jockey]

Just to confirm the pay scale...

An eight year captain's salary on base flying credits of 78 hours/month makes a yearly salary of $87,020.

Is this to fly a Dash 8 or the Regional Jet?

I don't think they have Dash 8's anymore.

No more Q400s, did not know this.

[GATRKGA]

Pay: Min Credit FO month - 4k. Min Credit CA month - 6k. OT cheques as good as 6k/month as an FO, and 9k/month as Captain.

Just curious if these numbers are purely OT flying or more along the lines of per diem.

Thx

Min Credit plus Per Diems = 4K FO
Min Credit plus Per Diems = 6K CA

OT Flying my best cheque was 6K as FO
OT Flying my best cheque was 9K as CA

Hope that helps.

[confusedalot]

Simply to add to the subject, this person made 94000 as a Capt in my last year at the place, excluding per diem and the 2% rrsp match. That was two years ago.

Per diem, 4800 or thereabouts? rrsp match maybe 2000?

So.....total package a little over 100K. Worked like hell though.

[Jet Jockey]

Simply to add to the subject, this person made 94000 as a Capt in my last year at the place, excluding per diem and the 2% rrsp match. That was two years ago.

Per diem, 4800 or thereabouts? rrsp match maybe 2000?

So.....total package a little over 100K. Worked like hell though.

LOL at counting the per diems as part of the income but if you want to count that then FYI, we get the equivalent of about $3000 CAD for a two week trip in Europe and even more in the Mid East and Asia...

2% RRSP match is low and when I think about it, so is a $94,000 a year captain's pay (which I assume he probably had to fly 800 to 900 hours in a year to get that salary) for that type of aircraft.

[confusedalot]

It's an exchange of information. It is not a pissing contest.

Happy you are a big jet international pilot with bags of money. Wish I was the same. Used to be in your shoes until the place went bankrupt.

So think about that, it may very well happen to you. Hope it does not.

Sheesh..............the arrogance..........cool name, the jet jockey thing.

[Cat Driver]

Sheesh..............the arrogance.........

Don't you know that only the very best of the species rise to the rarefied heights of success and make it to operating a big jet internationally?

Fortunately the pay is not as large as some of their egos or flying would just be so expensive the airlines would cease to exist.

When they reach that high plateau of success do they still pull those gay looking little luggage and chart wheelie things through the terminals?

Or do they now have someone else do it?

[Jet Jockey]

It's an exchange of information. It is not a pissing contest.

Happy you are a big jet international pilot with bags of money. Wish I was the same. Used to be in your shoes until the place went bankrupt.

So think about that, it may very well happen to you. Hope it does not.

Sheesh..............the arrogance..........cool name, the jet jockey thing.

Yes it is an exchange of information and I did not want to sound arrogant in my comments and I apologize if you felt I was arrogant towards you.

Used to work for the feeders and used to fly for a small airline that became a major feeder for a major Canadian airline so I do know both sides of the story too.

One of my points was I can't believe some pilot count per diems as part of their salary. Two, yes I definitely think flying perhaps 800 hours plus a year flying a regional jet for $94K a year is a low salary.

I hope no one that works in aviation (whether corporate or airline) loses their jobs but I jumped back in the corporate world 26 years ago to join this flight department because of their track record. They have had aircrafts for a long time (prior to my arrival) and hopefully after I retire. They are a major Canadian company with businesses in all parts of the world and they make lots of money and that's how they can afford 3 GEX and 4 604s across our country.

Of course no one can predict the future but I think Air Canada as more chances of going bankrupt than our company.

[Broker]

You are very fortunate Jet Jockey but having had 3 great jobs vanish over my 35 year corporate career and having to fill gaps with substandard jobs, in retrospect, I would take the job at AC.

Corporate is still subject to the whims of upper management, new management personnel, economies of the associated business and office politics.

Good it has worked for you but you are a rarity. I hope nothing happens within your organization because your next micro career may be very, very disappointing by comparison. Luck of the draw. I would take a seniority number given a second chance.

[Jet Jockey]

You are very fortunate Jet Jockey but having had 3 great jobs vanish over my 35 year corporate career and having to fill gaps with substandard jobs, in retrospect, I would take the job at AC.

Corporate is still subject to the whims of upper management, new management personnel, economies of the associated business and office politics.

Good it has worked for you but you are a rarity. I hope nothing happens within your organization because your next micro career may be very, very disappointing by comparison. Luck of the draw. I would take a seniority number given a second chance.

I agree with you on all points... getting hired at AC especially at 21 years of age and making it your career there is probably the safe bet because of the overall package.

Yes I do feel lucky to have this job and really hope I can retire when I am ready to do so.

[DGuy]

Is there an upper age-limit of hiring experienced pilots at Skyregional? Oldest pilot hired at Skyregional?