Commuting

[Totosky]

Hello
I was wondering how hard/easy it is to commute with Flair. Do most pilots live at or near the bases or are there lots of commuters?
Any info will be much appreciated.

Toto

[flying4dollars]

Reciporcal agreements with all major and smaller airlines in Canada. Pairings are mostly day turns, very few overnights. Commuting quality is dependant on where your base is and where you're commuting to and from. Seniority based company, so your schedule is a result of that.

[Soyer]

With bases in YXX,YVR,YEG,YYZ,YKF and YOW commuting is certainly possible. Future bases will likely be in YUL, YYC and YHZ so geographical spread will likely make it straightforward.

[Totosky]

Thank you, guys!

[fixnfly]

With bases in YXX,YVR,YEG,YYZ,YKF and YOW commuting is certainly possible. Future bases will likely be in YUL, YYC and YHZ so geographical spread will likely make it straightforward.

Does it reduce expenses to have that many bases? I mean Jazz has a way larger fleet and network and they keep it down to 4. I always thought it’d make sense for regional airlines to expand their bases to reduce overnights in outstations and thus costs. I imagine having that variety of bases would attract people as well that don’t want/can’t afford to live in YYZ or YVR

[flying4dollars]

There are a few overmights due to schedule requirements but 90% of flights are turns. This is the ULCC model.

[Purgatory]

Forget about commuting with Flair, the schedule makes it impossible. Many pilots have recently resigned due to the inability to commute. I personally know five that listed that as there #1 reason for leaving.
While junior you will do 18-20 days of reserve with single and double days off. Even with good seniority,commuting is difficult with the ULCC model of day returns and little to no overnights depending on your base. The lack of flying during Covid allowed18-20 days off a month, that’s a thing of the past and will not return, expect 12 off at best.

[fish4life]

Not just a Flair issue, any airline that is mainly single days is not something anyone should try commute on unless it’s all really high 8+ hour days

[DanWEC]

I'm just going to play devil's advocate here.
Trust me, I don't have a horse in the race nor do I have much respect for operations at Flair, but the fact that they're primarily operating out of secondary airports will substantially reduce the need for commuting compared to a strictly YYZ domicile at lower end airline pay.
They should also be able to attract pilots who'd rather take a pay cut then commute for every pairing, and I totally get that.
There's a bit of entitlement at play here if you're looking at an entry level airline with 703 hour requirements and complaining you can't commute.

[Purgatory]

I don't think it was entitlement that lead to their departure. Flair indicated during the interview process that commuting was possible and that more bases were imminent. When that didn't prove to be true, they left.

[RoAF-Mig21]

Reciporcal agreements with all major and smaller airlines in Canada. Pairings are mostly day turns, very few overnights. Commuting quality is dependant on where your base is and where you're commuting to and from. Seniority based company, so your schedule is a result of that.

I don't work for Flair, but this right here should pretty much tell you that you must have a place within a reasonable driving distance to your base (or a crashpad).

[tbaylx]

I don't think it was entitlement that lead to their departure. Flair indicated during the interview process that commuting was possible and that more bases were imminent. When that didn't prove to be true, they left.

Commuting is certainly possible at Flair. We have pilots that live in YLW, YHZ, YYT, YUL, and YYC to name a few and all have successfully commuted for some time. If the expectation was that it would have an equal lifestyle to living in a base or that you would not require a crash pad then that was certainly our fault for not being more clear about how commuting works.

We had anticipated a YUL base opening this year and some of our YUL pilots were disappointed when that didn't happen. Most are based in YOW and have a reasonable drivable commute however.

Flair currently has 6 bases across the country with 20 aircraft. I don't think there are many other airlines that have that many choices of places to live. There will be additional pilot bases added into 2023 and beyond further increasing options to live where you want and be home every night.

Pilots are averaging 16 days off per month, and over half of the seniority list was hired in the last 12 months so no one is junior on reserve for very long here once they have completed training.

[Flairpilot]

If you have a job, I wouldn’t leave it to commute at Flair. Obviously a different story if you don’t have a job, gotta do what you gotta do then.

You will lose most of your time off due to commuting, that is a fact. With more bases being talked about constantly, wait until there’s one near you. Just my 0.02C.