On-Line poll about the foreign pilot issue

[Gilles Hudicourt]

Don't fool yourself, before Sunwing was a thorn in Transat's side
nobody took any notice. While Transat has laid off once again for the second
winter in a row, Sunwing has hired and not laid off, some permanent and some
temporary Canadian pilots.
Still not good enough though, as it's still is a thorn in Transat's side, thus the witch hunt continues.

Don't fool yourself in 2010 only about 70 pilots came to Canada under reciprocity. In 2011 it was over 220 and it is Sunwing's own Canadian pilots who rang the alarm bells and informed us about this alarming situation.

[Jean-Luc Monette]

Don't fool yourself, before Sunwing was a thorn in Transat's side
nobody took any notice. While Transat has laid off once again for the second
winter in a row, Sunwing has hired and not laid off, some permanent and some
temporary Canadian pilots.
Still not good enough though, as it's still is a thorn in Transat's side, thus the witch hunt continues.

You really don't get it, do you? This isn't an Air Transat thing...

[OPEC6-Heavy]

Gravol,

I have tons of respect for guys that stick their neck for the good of all Canadian pilots. I'm 100% a Canadian pilot and proud of it. Ive written my own letter and supported various other actions against the over use of European pilots. But I will not let untruths and exaggerations be loosely thrown around so that one company can try and destroy another companies reputation for the sake of self preservation. Leave the company leaning rhetoric out of it and focus in the real issues, Canadian pilots.

[fasken]

Sorry Gilles but I don't understand your logic. I think you are saying that because CIC doesn't know how many wet lease pilots are here means they shouldn't count when looking at reciprocity?

I think they should all count and have a question for you to make my point. Which of these statements do you support?

1. Sunwing could do 4 wet leases in the summer and bring in 13 wet leases in the winter and I would be okay with it because wet lease pilots do not count when looking at reciprocity.

2. Sunwing could do 4 wet leases in the summer and bring in 13 wet leases in the winter and I would NOT be okay with it because wet lease pilots should count when looking at reciprocity. I recognize that more than one government department is involved, so it may be harder to determine, but it is not

[Gravol]

Gravol,

I have tons of respect for guys that stick their neck for the good of all Canadian pilots. I'm 100% a Canadian pilot and proud of it. Ive written my own letter and supported various other actions against the over use of European pilots. But I will not let untruths and exaggerations be loosely thrown around so that one company can try and destroy another companies reputation for the sake of self preservation. Leave the company leaning rhetoric out of it and focus in the real issues, Canadian pilots.

I can agree with that. Perhaps you and the OP should be discussing the differences via PM or even via phone to keep the basic message (in the eyes of us readers) credible. There doesn't seem to be any consistency. Not meant to be insulting but that's just how I interpret this.

[Gilles Hudicourt]

Sorry Gilles but I don't understand your logic. I think you are saying that because CIC doesn't know how many wet lease pilots are here means they shouldn't count when looking at reciprocity?

I think they should all count and have a question for you to make my point. Which of these statements do you support?

1. Sunwing could do 4 wet leases in the summer and bring in 13 wet leases in the winter and I would be okay with it because wet lease pilots do not count when looking at reciprocity.

2. Sunwing could do 4 wet leases in the summer and bring in 13 wet leases in the winter and I would NOT be okay with it because wet lease pilots should count when looking at reciprocity. I recognize that more than one government department is involved, so it may be harder to determine, but it is not okay.

Do I come across as stupid to you ?

[fasken]

I didn't contradict myself.

I said that as far as I (me Gilles Hudicourt) am concerned, wet-lease pilots should not count in either direction.

I don't think you are stupid, but your position on the issue of not counting wet lease pilots does come across as stupid to me. Just pointing that out in my question. I see you don't appreciate anyone questioning you.

[Gilles Hudicourt]

I didn't contradict myself.

I said that as far as I (me Gilles Hudicourt) am concerned, wet-lease pilots should not count in either direction.

I don't think you are stupid, but your position on the issue of not counting wet lease pilots does come across as stupid to me. Just pointing that out in my question. I see you don't appreciate anyone questioning you.

My position comes across as stupid to you. Let's see if you are capable of understanding logic and reasoning or if you are just attempting to crank me for the sake of it.

Reciprocity was not invented by Sunwing. They found it inside the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations and decided to exploit it.

It's in Division 3 of the those regulations and the title of that section is "Issuance of Work Permits"

You can go see for yourself here:

http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/regu ... .html#h-97

Section 200 talks about work permits in general, and section 203 about the LMOs and section 205 (b) about reciprocity.

205. A work permit may be issued under section 200 to a foreign national who intends to perform work that

(b) would create or maintain reciprocal employment of Canadian citizens or permanent residents of Canada in other countries;

If you were to go back a few pages and look up Section 186 whose title is "Work Without a Permit", that is how wet-lease pilots are admitted into Canada.

186. A foreign national may work in Canada without a work permit

(s) as a member of a crew who is employed by a foreign company aboard a means of transportation that
(i) is foreign-owned and not registered in Canada, and
(ii) is engaged primarily in international transportation;

Reciprocity is a work permit program and the people who administer it control work permits to foreigners under reciprocity. They have one valve in their hand, all it does is control the number of foreign pilots that come into Canada and its called "reciprocity work permits". When you demonstrate that you sent pilots on reciprocity, they are supposed to open the work permit valve an equal amount. When you don't demonstrate reciprocity they can close the valve and you can then go try to still import the foreign pilots through other sources, which are the LMO, controlled by HRSDC, or the Wet-Leases which are controlled by the CTA. The CIC officer in charge of reciprocity has no say in the pilots that are allowed into Canada though LMOs or through wet-leases, so how can he/she administer and control a reciprocity program that allows pilots into Canada in a manner by-passing him ? There are three valves and all he controls is one of them.

If you fail to demonstrate reciprocity, and CIC turns you down, you can still import foreign pilots through other methods. So how can those other methods be counted in reciprocity ?

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resources/ ... 01-eng.pdf

If evidence of reciprocity is not presented to the satisfaction of the officer, the work permit may be refused, or the applicant may be notified that an LMO must be obtained for further consideration of a work permit.

That is why I claim that wet-lease and LMO pilots do not count in reciprocity. In either direction. Those that count them are being fraudulent.

Did this sound stupid to you or did you understand it ?

[Scuba_Steve]

Mr hunter has already counted Wet Leased pilots in a number of news articles. The problem is he only counts it one way.....so sure lets count the wet leased pilots from Canada this summer and put it up against the number brought in this summer on the 767 program and the 13 737's. What would the ratio be?

And sure, Transat wet leases 330’s overseas, do they bring in any foreign registered aircraft? What would their ratio be?

The whole idea of the reciprocal program is to be labour neutral....which of the two above examples is closer to "labour neutral" ?

Cheers

[fasken]

I didn't contradict myself.

I said that as far as I (me Gilles Hudicourt) am concerned, wet-lease pilots should not count in either direction.

Gilles,

You seem to have lost your way.

It is easy to count how many pilots move in and out of Canada for an airline. You have done so yourself.

From what I understand, the number of pilots that Sunwing has sent to work in Europe in the summer and the number of pilots brought in to Canada are roughly the same. Each year is different, but overall about the same. At the same time, Sunwing has grown their number of Canadian pilots from 45 to 170. 120 of the 170 are Captains. And Sunwing hired and trained 20 seasonal Canadian resident first officers this year. A really good step in the right direction. The last three years Sunwing has brought over more pilots than it sent to Europe, but if the Europeans had been as closed as you want things to be, they would have stopped the Sunwing imbalance in the beginning years and maybe jeopardized 170 Canadian pilot jobs. The Europeans looked at the bigger picture, let Sunwing send pilots to Europe and now it has balanced itself out. This program has clearly benefitted Canadian pilots.

And yet, you take the position that, because the Sunwing pilots work wet in Europe and Sunwing brings over dry pilots to Canada (except for one last year), the Canadian wet pilots don’t count towards reciprocity and there is a huge imbalance. You make up an excuse as to why you take this position, but it is an excuse. Hard to count the number, more than one department involved. Whatever. Makes Sunwing look really bad, even though the numbers of pilots moving back and forth is roughly equal. That seems to be your real agenda, making Sunwing look bad.

I then posed a question to you. “How would you feel if Sunwing did 4 wet leases in Europe and brought 13 wet leases in to Canada” – a theoretical question. You ask me if you come across as stupid to me. You say that because that would obviously not be good for Canadian pilots and I agree. But it goes against your position that wet pilots shouldn’t count. If Sunwing started to do this, you would change your position (as is evident by your rhetorical response) because now a different position on the issue makes Sunwing look bad.

That makes things very clear to me. You will take whatever position makes Sunwing look bad.

This is not about protecting Canadian pilots, it is about Transat versus Sunwing. Full stop.

I notice that you have not made a peep, a tweet, a post or a comment about WestJet’s wet lease program. Why is that I wonder? Because you and your employer don’t care about those wet lease pilots. Even though, I might add, your aircraft would be perfectly suited to do a program to Hawaii from western Canada. But not a peep. Only Sunwing’s foreign pilots matter. Because that is your real agenda.

It appears obvious to me that you are working with your employer, sharing information with them in fact, to discredit Sunwing and spread mis-information. You are good at it too. You have a lot of people buying in to your story. But not everyone.

I believe in 1:1 reciprocity. Strongly. I think that everyone needs to look at the big picture and get their own facts, not just what Gilles feeds you. Because you see, he has an agenda. It is all about him and his friends at Transat.

What if I told you that, since Sunwing started, the number of pilots that Sunwing has sent to Europe in the summer and the number they brought over in the winter was roughly the same (wet, dry or otherwise)?

What if I told you that Sunwing has created 170 new Canadian pilot jobs since it started in 2005?

What if I told you that 30 Sunwing first officers got an upgrade to Captain for this winter?

What if I told you that Sunwing hired and trained (without a bond) 20 seasonal Canadian pilots to operate for them this winter? And was planning on having even more next year?

Answer those four questions and ask yourself if what Sunwing has done is good or bad for Canadian pilots. Everyone except Air Transat pilots, that is.

[60N30W]

"It appears obvious to me that you are working with your employer, sharing information with them in fact, to discredit Sunwing and spread mis-information. You are good at it too. You have a lot of people buying in to your story. But not everyone.

I believe in 1:1 reciprocity. Strongly. I think that everyone needs to look at the big picture and get their own facts, not just what Gilles feeds you. Because you see, he has an agenda. It is all about him and his friends at Transat."

Hello Fasken,

From your post it sound like you are "working with your employer" ( your words exactly).. Nothing wrong with that.

Everyone has an agenda, from your post I see you have one too. Not to mention your handle is the street name where headquarters are located for Sunwing, could not be more clear on your agenda!

Regards,

60N30W

[FICU]

You're wasting your breath fasken... you will have to hire more Canadian pilots and lift your requirement for a type rating before you will gain any credibility with Canadian pilots, other then those who are management at your company.

Canjet can follow suit too!

[AsheetMaDraws]

You're wasting your breath fasken... you will have to hire more Canadian pilots and lift your requirement for a type rating before you will gain any credibility with Canadian pilots, other then those who are management at your company.

Hired Canadian pilots in the spring, even upgraded some of them shortly after. Hired in the fall, type rating included, though only temporary but
will more than likely be full time by spring. No lay offs.

[FICU]

Hired Canadian pilots in the spring, even upgraded some of them shortly after. Hired in the fall, type rating included, though only temporary but
will more than likely be full time by spring. No lay offs.

That's great so what's the excuse to not completely lift the type rating requirement for all hiring and leave the foreign pilots on the other side of the pond?

[Gravol]

Hired Canadian pilots in the spring, even upgraded some of them shortly after. Hired in the fall, type rating included, though only temporary but
will more than likely be full time by spring. No lay offs.

That's great so what's the excuse to not completely lift the type rating requirement for all hiring and leave the foreign pilots on the other side of the pond?

The answer is obvious, and the user will most likely not respond with an honest answer. Regardless of TC and their previous endeavours, we are still allowed to question sunwing based on their practices today. You can attack the individual delivering credible information all you want, it doesn't change the fact that what he is saying is in fact true.

[fasken]

Hired Canadian pilots in the spring, even upgraded some of them shortly after. Hired in the fall, type rating included, though only temporary but
will more than likely be full time by spring. No lay offs.

That's great so what's the excuse to not completely lift the type rating requirement for all hiring and leave the foreign pilots on the other side of the pond?

The answer is obvious, and the user will most likely not respond with an honest answer. Regardless of TC and their previous endeavours, we are still allowed to question sunwing based on their practices today. You can attack the individual delivering credible information all you want, it doesn't change the fact that what he is saying is in fact true.

Did you read my post, or do you just ignore what you don't like to read? From the beginning of Sunwing in 2005 until today, Sunwing has generated more pilot work in Europe for Canadian pilots then they have had foreign pilots working in Canada.

[60N30W]

Fasken

Sunwing has been keeping European pilots working since 2005. Who knew they had been contributing to European pilot employment for that long! Time sure does fly by...

[Euroview]

Captain Hudicourt

I have read with interest over the last couple of months these forums and what seems like an almost one Pilot vendetta.

Let me make it clear from the outset, I have nothing to hide, this is my first post on this forum and may well be my only post. I am a Pilot for one of the Airlines that Sunwing currently reciprocates with and engage in flying for Sunwing during the winter months.

I think it's about time that certain posters on here appreciate what is happening from a European Pilot's perspective. There has been a lot of misleading information, the record should be set straight. Please allow me to also state clearly that I believe 1-1 (or within 10% depending on the constraint of business) is the way forward.

Unfortunately Capt Hudicourt I think this has descended into a company argument where frankly the main motive is to derail a very clever business synergy. I may be wrong but surely the main motive here should be about providing work, and thus a living, for Canadian and in our case British Pilots. This is what the current agreement does.

I personally believe it is irrelevant whether the aircraft flown are G Reg or C Reg, to re-iterate, this is about Pilot jobs.

If we take the British agreement, 3 Sunwing Aircraft were utilised the entire summer providing work for those aircraft and Pilots. This equated to approximately 30 Pilots. This year an almost exact number from the British Airline have been detached to Sunwing. I appreciate the Sunwing Pilots are still flying a C Reg aircraft - and the British Pilots will also be flying a C Reg aircraft, however Captain Hudicourt - THIS IS ABOUT PILOTS JOBS, it matters not whether the aircraft being flown are British or Canadian! putting it bluntly for every Canadian Aircraft working for our Airline - that is 18 less jobs for British Pilots. However unlike your almost militant stance, the current reciprocal agreement is generally very well received by our Pilots. We can all see how mutually beneficial the agreement is.

It is worthy of note that the agreement with Sunwing looks set to continue to next summer with the same / increased number of aircraft, thus providing work for at least the same number of Canadians. I fail to see how this is not a reciprocal agreement! It strikes me that you want to have your cake and eat it, you obviously have no objection to Canadians detaching to fly a C Reg aircraft for a 3rd Party airline, but the moment a Pilot from that said airline flies in Canada you consider it unacceptable. It may be an idea to give some thought as to how that may sound to British or other European Pilots.

It may be time to start thinking about this a little more logically and consider other parties involved, comments on this forum such as "just providing work for European Pilots" and the suchlike are not accurate and not fair. I agree 100% with the comments made by Fasken, whether or not the statements come from inside the airline is unknown to me, the facts are true, Sunwing provides stable employment for hundreds of Pilots and more over an employment path with a future. There have been significant numbers of Command upgrades in a short space of time, this is not the case in many European airlines.

Given the logic above I can only draw one conclusion, the motive here is not as you say, your motive appears to be to try to destabilise a very clever and efficient working agreement and ultimately destabilise a good airline and thus the employment of those Pilots to which it contains, notwithstanding those Pilots employed by airlines in Europe that engage in the reciprocal agreements.

[piloterror]

EDIT by lil

Gilles: pretty much everything Fasken said. EDIT by lil You're playing on the emotions of 703/704 pilots looking to make the next step and can't. I would bet my house on the fact no one would know who you were if it wasn't for the fact that Sunwing keeps taking away your business.

Sunwings going to need wide body's soon. Those 330's of yours are going to look great in orange!

[mbav8r]

Euroview, while I can appreciate your view, it appears as though your airlines agreement with Sunwing may be the only one that is reciprocal. You obviously haven't read everypost because it is extremely obvious the numbers don't add up. How can you more than double you fleet and have more pilots from Europe than Canadian and still claim it's 100 +/- 10%. They would have to send the entire fleet over and still wouldn't be close. So Euroview, I suggest you look around you and maybe ask yourself, would your British pilot friends would be so happy if the situation was reversed.
Let me be clear, I don't work with Gilles, I don't work in 703/704, have no plans on leaving my current employer and I am 110% against this, what did you call it, oh yes, "very clever business synergy"
You know Euroview, you can put a nice dress on a pig and call it something else, at the end of the day, it's still going to roll around in it's own shit!
Piloterror, what do you care, it won't be you flying them anyway, you're a Canadian

[fasken]

Euroview, while I can appreciate your view, it appears as though your airlines agreement with Sunwing may be the only one that is reciprocal. You obviously haven't read everypost because it is extremely obvious the numbers don't add up. How can you more than double you fleet and have more pilots from Europe than Canadian and still claim it's 100 +/- 10%. They would have to send the entire fleet over and still wouldn't be close. So Euroview, I suggest you look around you and maybe ask yourself, would your British pilot friends would be so happy if the situation was reversed.
Let me be clear, I don't work with Gilles, I don't work in 703/704, have no plans on leaving my current employer and I am 110% against this, what did you call it, oh yes, "very clever business synergy"
You know Euroview, you can put a nice dress on a pig and call it something else, at the end of the day, it's still going to roll around in it's own shit!
Piloterror, what do you care, it won't be you flying them anyway, you're a Canadian

I am going to keep repeating myself.

To date, there has been more work for Sunwing Canadian pilots in Europe then there has been foreign pilots working for Sunwing in the winter in Canada. How can you possibly object to this if you believe in reciprocity. Please explain how you can be 110% against what has been good for Canadian pilots?

[mbav8r]

Fasken, provide details and proof. You see a great man once said,
"A proof is a proof. What kind of a proof? It's a proof. A proof is a proof. And when you have a good proof, it's because it's proven." Jean Chretien
Anyhow I digress, even in the early years if this is true and more Canadians went abroad than foriegn pilots were here, the trend the last few years is alarming and if left unchecked you can't argue where it is headed. Widebodies in the summer, with no Canadian pilots at the controls, more foriegn pilots than Canadian in the winter, and you think if your CEO is left to his own devices he won't exploit this to the fullest extent, laughable!

[florch]

euroview

I believe Mr. Hudicourt is as concerned with the overall numbers as you are. There is a lot of distraction on these threads taking away from his stated aim of 1 to 1 reciprocity.

If the British pilots are reciprocating 1 to 1, then maybe it's another group that doesn't reciprocate at all, or a group that sends over many more than they take back. It would take a lot of reading through these threads to decipher this, but that's the message.

Enjoy your time in Canada! Sincerely, welcome!

[Gilles Hudicourt]

I have read with interest over the last couple of months these forums and what seems like an almost one Pilot vendetta.

Thank for that message. How refreshing. It's a welcome change from the posse they let loose on me these past few days. I no longer bother to reply to them, it's futile.

I think that what you just wrote on me is mostly based on you reading what my detractors have to say about me and not on what I actually wrote. Here is my real position, and I know that a lot has been written but if you search on this forum you will see that this has been my position all along:

I think that Sunwing's aircraft and pilot swap with European airlines is brilliant and that my employer, who briefly toyed with the idea 10 years ago (the aircraft swap at least) should do the same, both aircraft and pilots swaps to survive. The 310s and 330s, while they can do some southern flights, are not well adapted to those flights which is the main reason that Sunwing's cost per seal mile is so much lower than ours.

I have no problem with what aircraft are registered in what country and who flies what, as long as the rules are respected. They are not.

I have no problem with Sunwing sending x number of aircraft to your company or any number of companies on wet lease if in exchange the same company sent an equal number of aircraft on wet-leases to Canada.

This being said, I have researched all of Sunwings foreign deployments since they were founded in 2005. At the risk of making this email too long, I will list them here, for unless I do so, people will contest what I say and call me a liar. They always do so. You will take note that unlike most people here, I write under my real name, am openly an Air Transat 330 captain and that if I was in the business of writing false or derogatory information, Sunwing's legal department would have already brought me in front of the courts.

In 2006, Sunwing sent 3 aircraft to Europe, all three to Excel Airways, C-FTAE, C-FTAE and C-FTAH
In 2007, Sunwing sent 3 aircraft to Europe, 2 to Excel, C-FTAE and C-FTAH, and one to XL Airways, C-GOAF
In 2008, Sunwing sent 4 aircraft to Europe, same aircraft and companies as in 2007 plus C-GLBW to EuroCypriot (it changed hands that summer).
In 2009, Sunwing sent 4 aircraft to Europe, 2 to Viking Airways, C-FEAK and C-FYLC, one to Travel Service, C-FTDW and LBW to EuroCypriot.
In 2010, Sunwing sent 4 aircraft to Europe, 3 to Viking Airways, TDW, EAK and YLC and 1 to EuroCypriot, LBW
In 2011, Sunwing sent 3 aircraft to Europe, 2 to to Thomson, YLC and and C-FLZR and one to Travel Service, TDW
In 2012, Sunwing sent 4 aircraft to Europe, 3 to Thomson, C-FTLK, YLC and LZR and one to Travel Service, TDW.

For a grand total of 25 aircraft with crew.

They also sometimes sent crews to Europe to fly European aircraft. In 2011 they sent 12 pilots to Europe to various companies.

In the other direction, Sunwing has been making use of temporary foreign aircraft and crews since the winter 2006-2007.

In 2006 they brought in 2 aircraft C-GDBX and C-GLWB from EuroCypria
In 2007, they brought in 3 aircraft, C-FEAG from XL Airways, and 2 from EuroCypria, C-GDBX and C-GLBW
In 2008, they brought in 8 aircraft, C-FXLD from XL Germany, C-GDBX and C-GLBW from Eurocypria, and C-GHZC, C-GKZA, PH-HZE, PH-HZK and PH-HZL from Transavia.
In 2009, they brought in 4 aircraft, C-FYLD from XL Germany, C-GDBX and C-GLBW from EuroCypria and SE-RHS from Viking.
In 2010, they brought in 6 aircraft, all from Thomson : C-FRZG, C-FRZJ, C-FRZB, C-FDZD, C-FDZE and C-FDZF.
In 2011, the explosion, they brought in 18 aircraft. I will spare you the registrations.
This year, they are bringing in 21 aircraft.

Since it was founded, Sunwing imported a grand total of 62 temporary aircraft and crew.

If doing 1:1 swaps, regardless of registration, was what their intention was, I would be fine with that. But the above numbers speak for themselves.

This year I asked Immigration Canada to send me the number of work permits that had been provided to Sunwing since 2005. The actual number of pilots is actually lower than those statistics, since some of those who were provided with work permits did not stay, failed their tests, or for whatever reason did not stay, but they still provide a good indication and the fluctuations match the number of aircraft posted above. It is also possible that a few of the pilots here were not for Sunwing, there was some confusion in my correspondence with CIC, but I am certain that the vast majority, if not all, are for Sunwing

"Permits Issued at Port of Entry Offices* for Temporary Foreign Workers
by National Occupation Code (NOC):
(22710: Air Pilots & Flight Engineers + NOC 22711: Pilots)
with C20 Exemption: Reciprocal Employment** "

Calendar Year NOC 22711 - Pilots Total
2005 69
2006 65
2007 60
2008 79
2009 48
2010 78
2011 224

*Permits issued at a port of entry office (airport and border).
**Reciprocal Employment (C20) exemption is used for seasonal workers.
Notes:
All of the work permits issued in the above table have been exempted under Reciprocal Employment (C20)* (R205 of IRPA). R205(b) allows foreign workers to take up employment when reciprocal opportunities are provided for Canadian citizens to take temporary employment abroad. Exchange programs offer the opportunity of gaining international experience and allow the cultural exchange of both foreign and Canadian participants and their employers.
Requestor: Gilles Hudicourt (cost recovery)
Data source: nim_foss_workperm_e as of Oct. 02, 2012
Data compiled by: OPS-Stats
Request # OPS-2012-1974
RDIMS #2980514

The above numbers are only those foreign pilots granted work permits under the reciprocal regulations of Immigration Canada, called R205(b), and do not include those who came under a Labour Market Oppinion (very few, I found only 4) and those who came to fly wet-leased aircraft. I estimate the wet-lease pilots to be in the order of at least 120 for there were at least 10 aircraft. Wet lease pilots do not require work permits to come to Canada

Need I comment these figures or do they speak for themselves ?

But all these figures were not necessary to explain the hard truth. Sunwing has nothing but 10 full time aircraft. How can a company claiming to do 1:1 reciprocity with wet-leases, import 21 aircraft into Canada on 6 month contracts in 2012 alone, if in exchange it only sent 4 of its aircraft on a six month contract to Europe ?

Sunwing claims that the number of aircraft it sent in the past provided them with a a large credit that they have been using up these past two years, but I'm afraid the numbers I have provided you with here show that this is far from the truth.

I hope you enjoy your time in Canada. Unlike what others here want you to believe, I have nothing against foreigners flying in Canada and would gladly go have a beer with you should you come by Montreal. PM me and I will give you my phone number. Its to prove that point that I did the little poll above about people's feelings toward the foreign pilots issue. It has nothing to do with the foreign pilots themselves (except those that failed the simulator rides and flew for Sunwing anyway).


PS I later edited this post to include the 3 EuroCypriot deployments. It was not clear, for originally that aircraft was a Cypriot aircraft registered 5B-BDW, on temporary dry-lease to Sunwing. After 2 winters of that, it then changed hands and became a Canadian wet-Lease to EuroCypriot.

[OPEC6-Heavy]

Gilles,

you failed to include our Greek deployment over a 2-3 year period in your calculations. C-GLBW from EuroCypria.

Euroview,

+1