2020 Hiring

[Transonic]

I understand your POV, but a couple of your statements are false.

There is incentive- REIP $14,400/year for 2 years if you flow to Westjet.
Also - you accrue senirorty on the list, not YOS, but senoeiry ahead of any OTS hires.

If you work at Jazz those two incentives dont exist.

Also- the union is working and proposing a significant pay structure change that will be arbitrated in April.

You sound like morale is low, which I get, but if you zoom out and evaluate the incentives, they do exist, maybe not enough tho.

Significant pay structure changes???? What’s your source?

The ONLY item for arbitration is an ESP replacement. Mr. Kaplan will NOT arbitrate a pension.

The one list is NOT written in stone. Both parties can cancel. ONEX is a wildcard and anything can happen.

The best advice is to get to a mainline carrier ASAP, whether AC or WS mainline.

[Transonic]

That is a weird post ^. You trying to sound like Yoda? A pilot must be one with the market force?

Alot of your post explains details that are simply not true or not true yet I suppose. You've made huge leaps in what you think is going to happen and what has actually been stated.

30 tails to Swoop? No details
20 WB? Not ordered yet.
Small jets? No imperial evidence.

Maybe you know someone at onex.

While cryptic, these are all valid points.

The WestJet Group is presently free to to shrink Mainline to 90% of Jan. 1st. 2019 numbers while growing Swoop to 30 737s.

For reference, WestJet mainline has 117-737s, 4-767s, 4-787s and Swoop has 9-737s.

As a rough guess, there were 1600 pilots at mainline on Jan. 1st 2019.

So 1600*0.9 = 1440 pilots. 30-737s@ 6 crews per plane is 360 pilots. Therefore a total mainline group of 1800 pilots with widebody expansion to offset Swoop growth to a max of 30 tails. 360/1800 is 20%, so over a 35 year career at WestJet mainline, that’s 7 years at Swoop. That’s 7 years at the lowest wage 737 operation while flying 19 days/month.

For simplicity, Swoop is like Georgian.

This is all back of the envelope math but illustrate the bearish case of a WestJet career under the current CA.

So why wait at Encore for 7 years to spend another 7 years at Swoop, the Georgian of 737s, until you make it big as a mainline FO?

While this scenario may not happen, it CAN under the current CA.

This is a significant downside risk. You only have ONE shot at the dream airline career in Canada.

The above risk is not present at Air Canada.

[derateNO]

You could do 7 years at Encore... then go to Jazz for 3 years and finally AC and still be ahead.

[Maxpwr]

.

[vrefplus5]

Lol.....for want of a “c”. Grammar cops for the win!

[vrefplus5]

Oops.....and an “e”. I flunked

[FL410AV8R]

May the force be with you!

[seriousflyer]

Agree with all the above math and risks.

Imperial = Emprical

The arbritration of Esp replacement has potential to revamp upt to 40% of Westjet Pilot pay.
Significant.
We'll see in April.

[moe]

Revamp? Doubt it.
Probably same same without the potential stock volatility.

[Commonwealth]

Revamp? Doubt it.
Probably same same without the potential stock volatility.

I think the company will push hard against anything more than 5%. They are not issuing “free for them” stock anymore but cold hard cash they would rather keep.

[Transonic]

Revamp? Doubt it.
Probably same same without the potential stock volatility.

I think the company will push hard against anything more than 5%. They are not issuing “free for them” stock anymore but cold hard cash they would rather keep.

????? No.

Mr. Kaplan has stated to both parties that the arbitrated value will have a floor of 20%.

ESP was not printed money. That kind of stuff scares investors. ESP was purchased on the open market.

The options were the only form of compensation that had a dilutive effect on shareholders. This was offset by share buybacks. Once that ended, shareholders disapproved increasing the option pool forcing the pilots to take a percentage of Restricted Shareholder Units, RSUs.

[fish4life]

Revamp? Doubt it.
Probably same same without the potential stock volatility.

I think the company will push hard against anything more than 5%. They are not issuing “free for them” stock anymore but cold hard cash they would rather keep.

The stock was never “free” the company would have to buy it in the market. If they just issued more stock every time they did ESP it would have diluted the heck out of stock.

[garfield]

With Onex acquisition and company expansion are they planning opening new bases?

[moe]

Not privy. Overlords have said boo.

[seriousflyer]

Havent heard anything. Wouldnt think so.

[Beaver2509]

Does anyone know if WestJet is still on track for hiring with all the negatives in the news the last few weeks? Just wondering if they have made any changes to their forecasts.

Thanks,

[Freeport_Flyer]

Does anyone know if WestJet is still on track for hiring with all the negatives in the news the last few weeks? Just wondering if they have made any changes to their forecasts.

Thanks,

Good question! Let's get this 2020 hiring thread back on track!

Has the outlook for hiring changed? With Encore apparently so short on crews are potential candidates for mainline being pushed in that direction? Direct entry captains at Encore?

[notwhoyouthinkIam]

Does anyone know if WestJet is still on track for hiring with all the negatives in the news the last few weeks? Just wondering if they have made any changes to their forecasts.

Thanks,

Good question! Let's get this 2020 hiring thread back on track!

Has the outlook for hiring changed? With Encore apparently so short on crews are potential candidates for mainline being pushed in that direction? Direct entry captains at Encore?

There are updates regarding new hire classes, likely due to Covid-19, but nothing that has been made public yet AFAIK.

[BaeR]

Hi people!
I’m looking for help. Trying to reach a lady from the WestJet recruitment team since 2 weeks. Anyone on this forum who could give me some advice?
I’ve got an appointment in Toronto the 19th in a couple of days but they are sending me to Calgary the 18th. Sent multiple emails and tried to call multiple times...no answer.

Anyone here from the recruitment team?

Thanks

[DaveP]

sent you a pm

[circle2land]

Heard today WJ is freezing all pilot hiring

[igorcanuck]

Heard today WJ is freezing all pilot hiring

Heard from who? There’s a lot of speculation going on.
I got a reply from one of their recruiters saying that they have gone through a staffing change and are just a little behind right now.
Hope that’s the true.

[CXALE]

Heard today WJ is freezing all pilot hiring

Heard from who?

Ed Sims

[Ash Ketchum]

Are interviews still going on or are they also stopped? I got one coming up at the end of the week.

[derateNO]

Fellow Pilots,
This morning, WestJet executive leadership briefed our Association, along with the other employee representatives, on the growing economic effect COVID-19 is taking, specifically a marked drop in forward bookings and a corresponding rise in cancellations.

By now you may have read or heard about the communication from the WestJet Group, and how it plans to protect its core business by reducing capacity if required. Those plans do not exclude the possibility of furloughs, but for now none are planned. However, all pilot hiring is suspended at this time.

Our collective agreement does have provisions to mitigate job losses and we have a commitment to work through these steps to best protect you—our members—and your careers.

Our pilot group has been through a roller coaster of labour-relations issues and has dealt with a new contract that has brought the most changes ever. We will continue to address contract issues; however, we must also turn our focus toward the challenges faced not only by our company but the airline industry as the COVID-19 situation and public reaction to it continue to evolve.

We know there will be pilots in our ranks yet to experience a global event like this in their career. What we are seeing now is not unlike the challenges experienced after the tragic events of 9/11 or during the SARS and H1N1 outbreaks.

We are committed to protect all our members' long-term careers. One lesson we can take from past experience is that airlines that successfully navigate the hard times come out the other side much stronger and more profitable.

Your three MEC officers have another meeting this afternoon. In the meantime, we encourage thoughtful reflection on the situation and your MEC will do their best to keep the lines of communication open with P2P and the pilot group as a whole.


Sincerely,
Your MEC