The Air Canada OTS thread

[Air.Field]

Jazz about 36k or so, with OT easily make mid 40s. Not counting per diems, because they don't count.

[dtpilot]

Yall could always go to Cathay... 16,800cad/month starting. DEFO.

[yvrflyguy]

Has anyone who has interviewed recently got a call for a course?

[PT6onH20]

.

[garfield]

Sure, they will only hire from express... and express are gonna cancel more flights. Anyway AC doesn't care about express cancelling flights because it doesn't affect their operations...

Maybe more hire from express but I think it's still gonna be far from 80%.

You need a good carrot to interest people about express carriers with the kind of package they offer.

[GATRKGA]

SR. Captain. Degree. 7 Weeks Between Interview and PFO. Passed Medical. SR Called, Good Reference Given. WTF Flag Raised. Guess they do care about parking express planes? My email said my skills and qualifications were given full consideration, and that AC is not prepared to offer me employment at this time. My gut feeling tells me it's not my skills and qualifications, and that its something else? Business Decision? Not sure. Maybe someone can shed some light.

Oh well - they will lose guys from express one way or another.

[confusedalot]

Sorry to hear that, and I am sure you are a perfectly good candidate, so don't take the turndown personally, which I know is hard to do. As objectively as I can state, I have heard of so many good and at times superb potentials being turned down over the decades that to my mind at least, appears to be an ongoing mystery. As you know, you will never know why, ''the board'' is a secretive place indeed.

For what it's worth, I don't think think that parking planes at the express carriers is a factor in the decision making. I don't know the express/mothercorp contract details, but I suspect that mothercorp foots the bill for pilot training in any case, among other things, so from a financial perspective it does not really matter.

[Victory]

Sounds like you feel you deserve the position which can come across badly in the interview.

[yvrflyguy]

Got the call this am for the April 23 Course....Interview was on March 14
Best of luck to all that go through the process!

[av8ts]

Sure, they will only hire from express... and express are gonna cancel more flights. Anyway AC doesn't care about express cancelling flights because it doesn't affect their operations...

You do know that Express flights are AC passengers connecting to/from AC flights right

[altiplano]

Update for those wondering.
Very competitive joining right now for OTS.

Lots of OTS in most recent classes:
lots of military, westjet, transat, porter, encore, a few off overseas heavy jets, a couple off corporate jets, several from smaller 705 ops too -8/737/dornier.

All with diverse experience and backgrounds. None from commuter/air taxi/turboprop only ops.

Of the express new hires it looks like lots coming from training positions or deep backgrounds. Seems they like that...

The most recent position bid was shelved until June, but lots of hiring still to do. Good luck!

[NotDirty!]

All with diverse experience and backgrounds. None from commuter/air taxi/turboprop only ops.

Not entirely true... there was ONE in the Feb 19th class.

[dialdriver]

Any guess on how long it can take to get a second interview after being PFO'd the first time?

[altiplano]

Not entirely true... there was ONE in the Feb 19th class.

most recent

[Noo]

Interesting there is a large uptick in WestJet mainline joining AC. Encore too.

[dtpilot]

Anybody know if you selected the second option “working knowledge” for French if some of the video interview is in French?

[NotDirty!]

Any guess on how long it can take to get a second interview after being PFO'd the first time?

I would think that the biggest limiting factor is the opening of the application portal. They say you can reapply in 6 months, but if they don’t accept applications for another year and a half, then it will be at least that long.

I was PFO’d in 2012, didn’t reapply until 2016, and interviewed in early 2017, started PIT in Feb 2018.

[Dry Guy]

The final PIT course before the summer break was scheduled for May 14th but it was said that would only be held "if required". So do you guys think that one will be required?

[NotDirty!]

The final PIT course before the summer break was scheduled for May 14th but it was said that would only be held "if required". So do you guys think that one will be required?

The February bid showed 420 vacancies system wide. Between February and the end of April, they have hired about 150 pilots. So a May PIT could be considered “required”... however there are only so many sims and instructors, so they may decide that they don’t require the course, if they need to give the training department time to catch up.

[pilotabc]

Late April course

Aviation diploma, 4K TT, Q driver. Calls have been going out this week and especially today with a few friends getting the call also. Good luck all!

[Victory]

Congrats. Sounds like you may have got on the last course in a while.

[pigboat]

Just talked to a G/S Instructor. 40 pilots started on the 3rd and another 40 will start before the end of April. No idea of the composition of the new classes.

Regards

[Duke15]

Just got the offer for an April 23rd start date, goodluck to everyone else in the process

[Noo]

The April courses were only planned to be 30 persons. So if they upped them to 40 that doesn't bode well for there being a May 14th course.

[groundpilot]

The final PIT course before the summer break was scheduled for May 14th but it was said that would only be held "if required". So do you guys think that one will be required?

Yes I do. Training Reports clearly indicate type courses for end of May for new hires which assumingly would be filled by a PIT course scheduled earlier in the month.

Would not be surprised if there were summer courses this year