AirSprint Fleet Transition

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AirSprintInc
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Re: AirSprint Fleet Transition

Post by AirSprintInc »

Update on AirSprint's Fleet Transition, Pilot Improvements, and 2018

In December 2017 AirSprint took delivery of C-FASF our 5th Embraer Legacy 450 aircraft which completed the transition from the Cessna Citation Excel/XLS aircraft to the new Embraer Fleet. AirSprint has been in a state of fleet transition and rejuvenation since 2012 when we first started replacing the PC12 fleet with the Cessna Citation CJ2+ and CJ3+, and then continued through the end of 2017 with the XLS to Legacy.

Having now completed the transition with forecast net growth throughout 2018 and an expectation to grow both the CJ and Legacy fleets in the next year, AirSprint is in the position to refocus resources towards pilot employment improvements. From our pilot group we have heard that the two major areas of desired improvements fell into the categories of Schedule and Salary. AirSprint is happy to announce new changes to both of these areas as detailed in the attached document.

To summarize:

Schedule
AirSprint has changed the standard schedule from 18 Reserve (available days) and 10 Off (Not-Available) days in a 28 day block, to a standard of 16 Reserve days, and 12 Off days. This change increases the total yearly scheduled days off by 26 days and is referred to as the 16/12 ratio schedule. There are also options for an 18/10, and a 14/14 ratio schedule with salary adjustments up or down depending on the total Reserve days per 28 day block.

Salary
Salary adjustments have been made across all positions as detailed in the attached document.

Secondary Base Structure
AirSprint is pleased to start offering employment opportunities throughout our developing Secondary Base Structure. We recognize that there are many talented and experienced pilots out there who may not be in the position to relocate to Calgary, Toronto, or Montreal. Identifying this, AirSprint will now allow our pilots to be based full-time, or part-time when approved, at a number of bases outside of our main airports of operation. These Secondary Bases include: Victoria (CYYJ), Vancouver (CYVR), Kelowna (CYLW), Edmonton (CYEG), Saskatoon (CYXE), Winnipeg (CYWG), Ottawa (CYOW), and Quebec City (CYQB).

These are a few of the major changes to AirSprint's pilot employment structure and I encourage everyone to see the attached document for a few more details on Salary and schedule. We are in the process of updating the Pilot Career Guide which should be available to everyone soon. I will post that document here as well once it has been completed.

Should you have any questions regarding AirSprint, please feel free to send your inquiries to airsprintinfo@airsprint.com .
Resumes and Cover Letters can be sent to careers@airsprint.com .

Cheers, and Fly Safe!

Adam Fallwell
Director, Flight Operations
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Pilot Improvments.pdf
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CL-Skadoo!
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Re: AirSprint Fleet Transition

Post by CL-Skadoo! »

Great job, Airsprint. You have raised the bar and set a higher standard!
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LegoMan
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Re: AirSprint Fleet Transition

Post by LegoMan »

Do you get your full guaranteed days off? Does scheduling take into account time to return home if positioned at another location?
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Re: AirSprint Fleet Transition

Post by HansDietrich »

Agree or disagree with Air Sprint and its policies, I love the fact that they're open, honest and willing to talk about their company to individuals that may be interested in working there. Good for them. Like someone else said here, it saves a lot of work on both ends if key information is made public.
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AirSprintInc
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Re: AirSprint Fleet Transition

Post by AirSprintInc »

LegoMan wrote: Tue Mar 27, 2018 12:40 pm Do you get your full guaranteed days off? Does scheduling take into account time to return home if positioned at another location?
Days off are days off and AirSprint will position you on or before your last reserve day to get you home. We are a fluid fractional operator and sometimes this isn't possible due to last minute flight changes, a couple pilots call in sick, or simply getting stuck in Barbados and the next airline home doesn't leave until tomorrow, among other reasons. If this happens we consider the pilot to be drafted for their day off and we compensate the pilot by paying them an additional double daily rate for their time. We consider up to 4 draft days per year acceptable, obviously 0 is the goal. Right now the average yearly draft days per pilot is less than 4, and we do have a number of people who actually volunteer to help out when these situations come up in order to get the additional pay.

But to summarize my comments, positioning home is done on your reserve days not your days off. We want you to get the rest, and time you need with your family and loved ones. A good work life balance for your employees is what we want.

Cheers,

Adam
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schnitzel2k3
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Re: AirSprint Fleet Transition

Post by schnitzel2k3 »

:smt045 :smt038

S.
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digits_
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Re: AirSprint Fleet Transition

Post by digits_ »

Really nice!

What percentage are night flights (let's say between midnight and 6 am)?

Is the bond linked to the base: for example if the company closes the secondary base after a year, are you still bonded for 2 years in total?

Great initiative though!
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AirSprintInc
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Re: AirSprint Fleet Transition

Post by AirSprintInc »

digits_ wrote: Tue Mar 27, 2018 6:49 pm Really nice!

What percentage are night flights (let's say between midnight and 6 am)?

Is the bond linked to the base: for example if the company closes the secondary base after a year, are you still bonded for 2 years in total?

Great initiative though!
Hello,

Last we did an analysis on our night flights we found roughly 0.18% of our 7000+ yearly segments terminated at some point between 2am and 6am. So roughly 13 flights, not too many. We have more days that end between midnight and 2am, but I wouldn’t say those happen all the time. We do have a Fatigue Risk Managment program that requires a minimum 11 hours notice (and rest period) prior to a flight the goes past 2am.

The performance agreement (bond) is only associated with the initial type rating and not the base you are located at. As far as I can tell there would be no reason to close a secondary base since our operations take us all over North America and where the pilot is based is now playing less and less of a role.

Hope that Helps,

Cheers,

Adam
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digits_
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Re: AirSprint Fleet Transition

Post by digits_ »

AirSprintInc wrote: Tue Mar 27, 2018 7:12 pm
digits_ wrote: Tue Mar 27, 2018 6:49 pm Really nice!

What percentage are night flights (let's say between midnight and 6 am)?

Is the bond linked to the base: for example if the company closes the secondary base after a year, are you still bonded for 2 years in total?

Great initiative though!
Hello,

Last we did an analysis on our night flights we found roughly 0.18% of our 7000+ yearly segments terminated at some point between 2am and 6am. So roughly 13 flights, not too many. We have more days that end between midnight and 2am, but I wouldn’t say those happen all the time. We do have a Fatigue Risk Managment program that requires a minimum 11 hours notice (and rest period) prior to a flight the goes past 2am.

The performance agreement (bond) is only associated with the initial type rating and not the base you are located at. As far as I can tell there would be no reason to close a secondary base since our operations take us all over North America and where the pilot is based is now playing less and less of a role.

Hope that Helps,

Cheers,

Adam
Sounds better every time I read this topic. And how many flights start before 6 AM? Just wondering how common it is to get called in the middle of the night for a 4 AM departure when you are on reserve. Bad medevac experiences come to mind.
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Re: AirSprint Fleet Transition

Post by JetA Burner »

Has your fatigue risk management system changed your 90 min call out on reserve?

This is my dream gig on a 14/14 schedule, if the call out was a greater than 90 mins. I understand the minimum call out is rare, but the obligation to meet it if need be is the limiting factor for me.
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AirSprintInc
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Re: AirSprint Fleet Transition

Post by AirSprintInc »

JetA Burner wrote: Tue Mar 27, 2018 7:33 pm Has your fatigue risk management system changed your 90 min call out on reserve?

This is my dream gig on a 14/14 schedule, if the call out was a greater than 90 mins. I understand the minimum call out is rare, but the obligation to meet it if need be is the limiting factor for me.

The minimum callout is 90 minutes to report to your home base airport. But to clarify, you have 2.5 hours (1 hours after arriving) to get the airplane airborne. We also have a duty pilot system in place where one of our managment pilots is always there so help assist getting the aircraft ready, completing flight planning, and other tasks at the request of the PIC/SIC if required. And no, we don’t have too many short notice call outs like that.

Cheers,
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AirSprintInc
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Re: AirSprint Fleet Transition

Post by AirSprintInc »

digits_ wrote: Tue Mar 27, 2018 7:18 pm
AirSprintInc wrote: Tue Mar 27, 2018 7:12 pm
digits_ wrote: Tue Mar 27, 2018 6:49 pm Really nice!

What percentage are night flights (let's say between midnight and 6 am)?

Is the bond linked to the base: for example if the company closes the secondary base after a year, are you still bonded for 2 years in total?

Great initiative though!
Hello,

Last we did an analysis on our night flights we found roughly 0.18% of our 7000+ yearly segments terminated at some point between 2am and 6am. So roughly 13 flights, not too many. We have more days that end between midnight and 2am, but I wouldn’t say those happen all the time. We do have a Fatigue Risk Managment program that requires a minimum 11 hours notice (and rest period) prior to a flight the goes past 2am.

The performance agreement (bond) is only associated with the initial type rating and not the base you are located at. As far as I can tell there would be no reason to close a secondary base since our operations take us all over North America and where the pilot is based is now playing less and less of a role.

Hope that Helps,

Cheers,

Adam
Sounds better every time I read this topic. And how many flights start before 6 AM? Just wondering how common it is to get called in the middle of the night for a 4 AM departure when you are on reserve. Bad medevac experiences come to mind.
We do have flights that start before 6am, I don’t have the exact data on those unfortunately. However, we are conscious of ones circadian lows and the same rule applies that you need 11 hours rest prior to flight operations between 2am - 6am, so those middle of the night calls to be airborne at 4am just don’t happen. AirSprint can call a pilot at 4am (assuming they have completed a full rest period) to report for a flight departing at 0630. The idea being the pilot will be out of the circadian low for the flight operation. And even those calls don’t happen very often. Early morning departures usually come with at least 11 hours notice.

Cheers,

Adam
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Re: AirSprint Fleet Transition

Post by AuxBatOn »

Adam,

Kudos to you and AirSprint for being 100% honest and transparent and presenting facts (rather than opinions). Truly refreshing!
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Re: AirSprint Fleet Transition

Post by Marinth »

With the 14/14 schedule, is it possible to group those into 14 days in a row, then 14 off in a row? And do you get vacation on top of this? Also, that requirements do you have for an off the street Captain?
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indieadventurer
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Re: AirSprint Fleet Transition

Post by indieadventurer »

Do you operate to Europe with the 450 or foresee possible expansion with even larger aircraft over the coming decade with reach into Europe/Asia?
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Re: AirSprint Fleet Transition

Post by hamstandard »

[quote=Marinth post_id=1035255 time=1522441762 user_id=21401]
With the 14/14 schedule, is it possible to group those into 14 days in a row, then 14 off in a row? And do you get vacation on top of this? Also, that requirements do you have for an off the street Captain?
[/quote]

Now that would make the job interesting to me. Air Sprint might just find that they could find themselves some longer term employees if this was an option. A certai mpercentage of pilots don't always look at the almighty dollar as 100% of what they are interested in. And while it is completely understandable that the company drafts you to fill in, an option for getting a two days back instead of double pay would be a nice option. It keeps both types of employees happy, which equates to a higher likelyhood of less turnover.
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hamstandard
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Re: AirSprint Fleet Transition

Post by hamstandard »

Hmmm..... no response?
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AirSprint HR
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Re: AirSprint Fleet Transition

Post by AirSprint HR »

I'll leave it to Adam to answer the above in more detail but a few quick answers:

- The bidding system has a set maximum of 8 work days in a row. You can select the option to allow the system to book you for up to 13 days in a row.
- AirSprint introduced Europe with the Legacy 450s last fall.

Regards,

James
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AirSprintInc
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Re: AirSprint Fleet Transition

Post by AirSprintInc »

hamstandard wrote: Sun Apr 01, 2018 11:08 am
Marinth wrote: Fri Mar 30, 2018 1:29 pm With the 14/14 schedule, is it possible to group those into 14 days in a row, then 14 off in a row? And do you get vacation on top of this? Also, that requirements do you have for an off the street Captain?
Now that would make the job interesting to me. Air Sprint might just find that they could find themselves some longer term employees if this was an option. A certai mpercentage of pilots don't always look at the almighty dollar as 100% of what they are interested in. And while it is completely understandable that the company drafts you to fill in, an option for getting a two days back instead of double pay would be a nice option. It keeps both types of employees happy, which equates to a higher likelyhood of less turnover.
Hello Folks,

Sorry for the delayed reply, it’s been a busy week and I am currently trying to make my way to Wichita. :)

As James said, there are rules in the PBS limiting the maximum number of days on reserve to 8. However, you can sign a waiver (push a button in the bidding system), that allows you to work up to 13 days. The maximum number of consecutive days off is simply as many as you can string together within the rules of the PBS.

For direct entry Captains we are looking for 4500 hours, ATPL, jet and corporate time an asset but not required. Internally we will upgrade our pilots to a Captain seat with 3500 hours when the seniority, ability, and job performance is there.

For the time being I would expect directly entry Captain positions will most likely fall into the CJ Series fleet. The Legacy Captain positions are preferably filled internally. Once in a Captain seat we generally require 2 years in that position before requesting transfer to another aircraft type, unless circumstances require an early move.

Hope that helps!

Cheers,

Adam
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AirSprintInc
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Re: AirSprint Fleet Transition

Post by AirSprintInc »

indieadventurer wrote: Fri Mar 30, 2018 3:43 pm Do you operate to Europe with the 450 or foresee possible expansion with even larger aircraft over the coming decade with reach into Europe/Asia?

We do operate to Europe with the Legacy 450. Currently we have seen operations to Scotland, France, and Portugal. Asia has not been discussed as an operational consideration as of now.

Cheers,

Adam
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