CommutAir is working on sponsoring Canadian pilots

[cansponsor]

CommutAir is working on a program to begin sponsoring Canadian pilots.
If you are interested, contact Myrna.Rodriguez@commutair.com to be added to the list.

Guaranteed captain pay after on year of service regardless of whether or not you are upgraded by that time.
See http://www.flycommutair.com/careers/pilots/ for more information.

[Air.Field]

I like how they inflated the "big" salary by $8800 by counting the awful per diems and hotel,uniform,parking. Also I'm sure the performance bonus is tied to the overall company performance, so I wouldn't expect 6800. Despite all that, still better than the regionals this side of the border

[Victory]

Can I just sleep in the plane and bank it?

['97 Tercel]

$4400 per diem average?? And I like how they've grouped that in with pay.

[Inverted2]

$4400 per diem average?? And I like how they've grouped that in with pay.

My per diems for 2017 were over $15000

$4400 is only $366/month

[leftoftrack]

what's your airlines first year salary? include perdiems the multiply by $0.80 for the exchange rate.

[complexintentions]

So let's just add the base pay and sign-on bonus: 36,500 + 22,100

= 58,600 USD or about 75,000 CAD.

Taxed less. Lower cost of living. How much do Rouge and Encore pay in year 1, again?

But the real value is in the possibility of obtaining citizenship and work up to a major. In a labour market 10x the size of Canada. Let's put it this way, if someone has ever had designs on a US career there's probably never been a better time to try.

Still, I guess it's easier to make fun of the (yes, tacky) marketing gimmick than actually take the plunge and explore an opportunity.

Have we gone soft? Canadians are no longer willing to move for work.

[leftoftrack]

thats what I was saying....you just said it better complex.

[Panama Jack]

So let's just add the base pay and sign-on bonus: 36,500 + 22,100

= 58,600 USD or about 75,000 CAD.

Taxed less. Lower cost of living. How much do Rouge and Encore pay in year 1, again?

But the real value is in the possibility of obtaining citizenship and work up to a major. In a labour market 10x the size of Canada. Let's put it this way, if someone has ever had designs on a US career there's probably never been a better time to try.

Still, I guess it's easier to make fun of the (yes, tacky) marketing gimmick than actually take the plunge and explore an opportunity.

Have we gone soft? Canadians are no longer willing to move for work.

And then we criticize immigrants for being willing to take the jobs that Canadians are not.

[altiplano]

Not a bad deal for a commuter with 4 paid hotels per month in base and a try to make it to work in good faith policy.

Guarantee Captains pay in year 2 until you bypass or fail an upgrade. I guess they are upgrading in a year or wouldn't be throwing that out there.

If I was at a different point in my career and there was a path to a US major like this, I would be trying pretty hard.

[altiplano]

Interesting how times have changed...

5 years ago:

I took a look at Airline Pilot Central for pay.

DH8 FOs start at 22K a year and Captains at 41K a year at CommutAir.

FOs start at 24K a year and Captains at 42K a year for Colgan Air.

Absolute Disgrace.

viewtopic.php?f=54&t=81703&p=762162&hil ... ir#p762162

[shamrock104]

They are not working on sponsoring Canadian Pilots.

[AvifiskAlly]

So let's just add the base pay and sign-on bonus: 36,500 + 22,100

= 58,600 USD or about 75,000 CAD.

Taxed less. Lower cost of living. How much do Rouge and Encore pay in year 1, again?

But the real value is in the possibility of obtaining citizenship and work up to a major. In a labour market 10x the size of Canada. Let's put it this way, if someone has ever had designs on a US career there's probably never been a better time to try.

Still, I guess it's easier to make fun of the (yes, tacky) marketing gimmick than actually take the plunge and explore an opportunity.

Have we gone soft? Canadians are no longer willing to move for work.

And then we criticize immigrants for being willing to take the jobs that Canadians are not.

Ya I remember a thread a while ago complaining about EVAS looking for pilots from India and there was a big uproar here. Funny that it is the Canadians the US pilots will be in an uproar about.

[altiplano]

They call us 'frostbacks'...

[willfly4food]

They are not working on sponsoring Canadian Pilots.

I contacted the company yesterday. They are working on it. They jumped the gun on posting the job ad.

If you are interested in working there, I would suggest dropping them a line via email and being added to the list of potential applicants. This has the possibility of showing them that there are enough pilots interested to make it worth looking into.

[Panama Jack]

[Ya I remember a thread a while ago complaining about EVAS looking for pilots from India and there was a big uproar here. Funny that it is the Canadians the US pilots will be in an uproar about.

And that's why I say there is very rarely such a thing as "right" and "wrong" in the traditional sense of the word. There are mostly only "interests".

[yycflyguy]

They are not working on sponsoring Canadian Pilots.

I contacted the company yesterday. They are working on it. They jumped the gun on posting the job ad.

If you are interested in working there, I would suggest dropping them a line via email and being added to the list of potential applicants. This has the possibility of showing them that there are enough pilots interested to make it worth looking into.

It would require adding pilots to the NAFTA professional trades list for a TN1 visa or the company would have to pay for the much more expensive H1B visa. Both are unlikely.

[complexintentions]

Unlikely in the past, yes.

Many things happening in the world economy today that not that long ago the armchair experts were saying "would never happen".

From President Trump to interest rates rising...

Project the future from the past at your own peril.

[teacher]

The big difference being when Canadian operators did it they did so to cut costs and avoid hiring Canadians. Today in
America it seems like there are no Americans to hire and they are paying good money to fill the flight deck.

[JBI]

As a few posters have mentioned, it will be difficult for CommutAir to obtain visas for Canadian pilots. Pilots are not on the list of NAFTA occupations at the moment and while, in theory, they could start trying to sponsor pilots under the H1B visa, its not quite as easy as saying "Hey, we like this guy or girl and want to sponsor them to come down to the US".

For the H1B, there are some specific criteria for which type of specialty occupations can be considered and there is actually a cap on how many H1B's can be granted. I was at an immigration law talk last week and the lawyer quoted the stat that the cap is 80,000 visas each year whereas almost 300,000 folks will apply. So even if 1- Commutair decides they want you and 2- they jump through the hoops to start trying to sponsor pilots and 3- USCIS agrees that pilots are eligible for H1B visas, you still have a 73% chance of not getting selected in the lottery. Applications start on April 1st and last year they reached the cap by April 7th.

And, it's important to take a look at where Commutair's bases are: Newark and Dulles. New York and Washington are not exactly the least expensive US cities to live.

Now, this could all change depending on the NAFTA negotiations. Although most informed participants want to amend and update the list of occupations, the lead participant on the US side (Trump) doesn't seem to be all that well informed. I'm still waiting for a late night twitter rant that gets my wife's visa revoked and we have to leave the country.

[Marinth]

The big difference being when Canadian operators did it they did so to cut costs and avoid hiring Canadians. Today in
America it seems like there are no Americans to hire and they are paying good money to fill the flight deck.

It seems that way, however it's not really the case. What's happening is because most companies are offering "hiring bonuses" guys are going to a company for a year and a half, collecting their whole hiring bonus, then seeing a wage decrease, jumping ship, and going to another company. The beauty of the H1B for these companies is you're stuck with the sponsoring company, and, besides marrying an American, there is nothing you can do to get a green card if the company doesn't want to sponsor you for one(and it doesn't really benefit the company to sponsor you for once since all that means is you can quit and work for another company). You will never flow to a mainline carrier on an H1B because it's a different employer, and after 6 years you will lose your ability to work on an H1B and be sent back to Canada just to start the search all over again to start at the bottom of a new companies seniority list. Also, if you have a spouse, they are not allowed to work in the US either. They either have to keep living in Canada, or quit their job and be a stay at home.

Now hopefully if all that happens, Encore, Jazz, Sky Regional, and GGN will be forced to pay more to attract those Canadians back to Canada, as I'd imagine there would be a rush of guys quitting to go work for proper WAWCON and you will have a good job to come back to.

[yycflyguy]

As a few posters have mentioned, it will be difficult for CommutAir to obtain visas for Canadian pilots. Pilots are not on the list of NAFTA occupations at the moment and while, in theory, they could start trying to sponsor pilots under the H1B visa, its not quite as easy as saying "Hey, we like this guy or girl and want to sponsor them to come down to the US".

For the H1B, there are some specific criteria for which type of specialty occupations can be considered and there is actually a cap on how many H1B's can be granted. I was at an immigration law talk last week and the lawyer quoted the stat that the cap is 80,000 visas each year whereas almost 300,000 folks will apply. So even if 1- Commutair decides they want you and 2- they jump through the hoops to start trying to sponsor pilots and 3- USCIS agrees that pilots are eligible for H1B visas, you still have a 73% chance of not getting selected in the lottery. Applications start on April 1st and last year they reached the cap by April 7th.

And, it's important to take a look at where Commutair's bases are: Newark and Dulles. New York and Washington are not exactly the least expensive US cities to live.

Now, this could all change depending on the NAFTA negotiations. Although most informed participants want to amend and update the list of occupations, the lead participant on the US side (Trump) doesn't seem to be all that well informed. I'm still waiting for a late night twitter rant that gets my wife's visa revoked and we have to leave the country.

Well explained

[confusedalot]

I'd be careful to assert that it won't happen. Before my time, heard of RCAF pilots that were going to United, during my beginning years Pilgrim Airlines were sponsoring Canadian pilots (but you were pretty much stuck there)

In the past, nurses and doctors moved to the US, no secret there.

Things change.

[yycflyguy]

The Medical industry and Aviation industry are very different as to who sponsors the H1B as far as stability of the employment. Pilots have never been included under TN1 visas but Nurses, MD and MD with certain specializations has been. Things do change and it would be a VERY good thing for Canadian pilots to be able to gain work authorization in the US as it would put more pressure to increase WAWCON here in Canada with a dwindling supply of licensed, experienced pilots. Unless there is a surprise in the current NAFTA negotiations, I wouldn't count on it.