~ Sky Regional 2014 ~

[Maxpwr]

Maintenance is contracted to Skyservice and they have dedicated Sky Regional guys.

Hangar space is a premium, we have space for 3 175's in YYZ and I think 1 in YUL.

Ground handling is all AC.

Ops is all Sky Regional.

[ourkid2000]

Thanks Max!

Interesting that AC does the ground handling. I figured AC would be too expensive! Hangar space must be pretty tough considering Skyservice has multiple customers. How many aircraft does Skyregional operate? Always assumed a handful of Q400's and 10 E175's......or am I way off?

[altiplano]

Thanks Max!

Interesting that AC does the ground handling. I figured AC would be too expensive!

same price for ground handling, fuel, mtc, nav fees, gates... just pilots working a few more days for a few buck less and you get the whole infrastructure surrounding it making it's buck too and they still deem it cost effective... I dunno...

how many emb pilots at sky now?

[teacher]

Mapleflt, I generally don't have a beef against those that fly for Sky Regional except maybe those that left AC or Jazz to do so and in the process put downward pressure on the wages and working conditions of your own peers. Neither do I blame those that left other less prosperous jobs who applied everywhere and took the first offer they had offered which may have been Sky Regional. I put the blame squarely where it belongs, Air Canada and it's management. I do not blame other pilots for needing to make a living. I blame Calin and AC's executive suite for making it harder for professional pilots to make that living.

It doesn't help that we pilots make it so easy for them to do it though either.

[streets ahead]

You guys should have just taken the high road, it is a rare thing on this forum to be able to openly discuss WAWCON without it being shrouded in propaganda.

I echo teacher's post. At the very least you must realize and acknowledge that the very existence of SKY and GGN is a direct threat to the careers at Jazz. So I would hope you understand the frustration.

In defense of the random outburst from BingBong, he is just following the logic of the thread, you seem to deem the WAWCON at SKY as acceptable for the time being. The WAWCON at Jazz is better than SKY, thus in the vacuum of CPA regionals, it is "High WAWCON."

Whats sad is that in the current state of our industry the WAWCON at Jazz can be considered "High." The folks at Jazz are entering the fight of their careers to protect that perceived "High" WAWCON. So please forgive my friend Bing Bong if he got a little testy.

[Maxpwr]

Agreed. I will try to answer any further questions from interested parties and ignore the mud-slinging.

[Never Mind]

don't try to justify whoring it out at sky as a sob story...oh we needed jobs....this is all we could find. Thats quite the load from the farm. Scroll back in the employment section during sky's inception to DATE. Lots of 1900, kingair level jobs, corporate jet gigs all over the country.

BingBong,

Finding jobs in aviation isn't so easy, even for highly experienced pilots. Also, keep in mind that the cost of oil has increased four times since 2000, from $25/barrel to $100/barrel today. A significant reason pilots are "whoring it out" at these above mentioned places is because these companies are responding to an economic reality.

Never Mind

[Rogerdodger2]

Jazz WAWCON isn't "high" it's the standard for that type of operation. Anything below that standard is unacceptable and detrimental to our profession. You can try to justify it anyway you want but you're just fooling yourself. I understand people need to work to pay bills but you should also fight to achieve an equal/minimum standard for our profession.

[Rockie]

I understand people need to work to pay bills but you should also fight to achieve an equal/minimum standard for our profession.

Rest easy because they are. Do you really think people like doing the same job for worse pay and employment conditions?

[Rogerdodger2]

Yes, actually I do. There are many who are content to work for less pay and crap conditions because they are fresh off a C172 or light twin. They don't know any better... They're excited to fly a jet...

[Elessar_44]

I see they are recruiting Q400 for YUL. Would you be able to live in southern Ontario and commute for Q400 work out of YUL or would it be just to much of a pain?

[Maxpwr]

We had one Captain who commuted from cottage country to YUL for quite a while. Kept an apartment in YUL until he could get YTZ base. It's been done before.

[Mig29]

Retired AC pilot?

[Crow]

How long is the call out on reserve? Ie. If you lived in Trois-Rivières and worked at Trudeau airport (1h40 drive) could you still be at home and make it to work in the minimum call out time, or would you have to find an apartment to sit in in Montreal when on reserve.

Also, have they been hiring direct entry captains on the Dash 8 lately? If so, have these pilots had DH8 type ratings on arrival?

Thanks

[Maxpwr]

How long is the call out on reserve? Ie. If you lived in Trois-Rivières and worked at Trudeau airport (1h40 drive) could you still be at home and make it to work in the minimum call out time, or would you have to find an apartment to sit in in Montreal when on reserve.

Also, have they been hiring direct entry captains on the Dash 8 lately? If so, have these pilots had DH8 type ratings on arrival?

Thanks

I think the official line is that we need to live within 1.5hrs of work. Usually we get assigned on our standby's the night before BUT if they are calling you on the day of then it's usually "get there as soon as you can" so a "I gotta drive from trois rivieres" would raise some eyebrows in the office I think.

Yes there's been direct entry captains lately but I don't know all the backgrounds. I know there's at least one with DH8 type already. They have hired guys off of ATR's though in the past. If you come with a DH8 classic and only need the short course then you're frozen for 1 year. If you don't have a type and need a full initial then you are frozen for 2 years. Q400 typed are not frozen.

[ant_321]

Whew that's a long list so here goes...

I should have included the FO starting salary, here it is...

Minimum monthly GUARANTEE is 65 hrs regardless of how little you work is $44226/yr
75hrs average a month is $45990/yr
85hrs average a month is $47754/yr

Captain is
$73437/yr at 65hrs MINIMUM
$76335/yr at 75hrs
$79223/yr at 85hrs

Those are just examples to show total compensation at various monthly average hours.

SALARY IS COMPRISED OF a base and flight credits paid every month. Don't ask me why they went this way, I find it just complicates things but in the end your pay stub shows a blended hourly rate anyway and that's how those numbers above are calculated. As you can see, working more hours per month doesn't really increase your yearly salary that much.

For example FO base is $31200/yr + flight credits of $14/hr.
Captain base is $52000/yr + flight credits of $23/hr.

There is also a 5% minimum guaranteed bonus paid quarterly. This is how we arrive at the total salaries posted above.

A previous poster mentioned something about credits paid twice a year? Never heard of that but the old "contract" language might have sounded similar but that's not at all how it works. The old guarantee was a minimum yearly credits guarantee but that was dropped in order to adopt a monthly minimum of 65hrs. You see in the beginning guys only got base pay during training. So when the Embraer expansion began and sim slots got pushed back and delayed we had people starving on the base pay only. Company listened to the problem and boom, 65hr minimum guarantee implemented. Hope that clarifies.

Total salary will increase by 2% each year for three years unless the CPI is higher then that's what we get.

Per diems have gone up slightly but are still really small. $1.60/hr while on duty and I think $3.00 for overnights. Nothing to write home about.

PENSION: yes, as stated before it's a DPSP differed profit sharing plan. Just jargon meaning a defined contribution plan. You put in as much as you want and the company matches up the 2%. This is available to anyone after 6 months service. Again nothing to write home about but it's a start. Consider it took Porter years to get a 1% company match! I've made it clear that this is an important area to improve going forward.

BENEFITS:
The usual STD, LTD are quite inexpensive. I think my last LTD deduction was around $50. At Jazz it was hundreds.

Medical is free for individual OR family coverage. The usual 80% dental etc... You can opt for a 100% plan if you choose but you have to pay a premium! no idea how much but if your spouse has coverage then you'd never need the 100% plan.

Parking is subsidized I guess, I see $10 come off my pay check.

RESERVE:
Reserve is mixed in with flying pairings, no reserve blocks. It's 4am-10pm. Usually you get notified the day before because sick people "usually" book off the day before. I've been here 1.5 yrs and have worked maybe 4 times on reserve. Only once got called on the day of at 10am and that was a ferry flight.

Duty times: are CARS or close to it. This is where a low cost carrier saves it's money, with employee productivity. That being said, in normal ops you don't feel a thing. In irrops it can get a little uglier as you can Get reassigned and they can basically do what they want with you within your duty day. Right now there's no real protection of your block. I think they are working on this though in the flight/duty committee. Max days worked? I don't know if there's anything written but I haven't seen more than 5 in a row. As for rest periods, these aren't exact but I think they schedule for a minimum of 12 at home but it can go as low as 11hrs because of delays. Away from base is 11hr scheduled but as low as 10hrs due to delays.

Maintenance:
I'm on the Dash so I can't comment on the Embraer. It's generally quite good. Never seen more than one MEL at a time. Things break, you snag, they fix. End of story. I can't imagine anything different. As for Captains authority...I've never seen it challenged in any way. I say I want more fuel because of reason x. I get it. I don't like that alternate because of reason y, they change it. End of story. If you are acting within the rules set out in the COM etc then there's no problem. Pretty standard I'd say. Keep in mind this place was built by and run by ex Sky Service. They don't mess around and we're lucky to have em. Same goes for all the experience we picked up from AC and the Middle East. This isn't their first rodeo and nobody's gonna challenge the captains authority in any way.

UPGRADES
Upgrade times depend entirely on the experience of the individual. For some it was 6 months, for others it's still up in the air. Seniority only means you're next as long as you have the min requirements, are good at your job, have the right Attitude, good training record and can get through your captain training. Upgrades are earned, not handed over. The 2000hr wonder that walks in asking "when's my upgrade" probably won't. This should be obvious but apparently not to everyone.

I think that covers most of it. Hope it helps. I prefer facts rather than supposition and I'm sure you do to. I just hesitate to post publicly because I'm sick of hearing what a worthless sack of scumbag s**t I am for working at Sky. If the thread remains civil then I'm happy to answer any questions. Cheers.

Can anyone confirm if these numbers are still accurate or if things have changed? Any comments on current working conditions? Upgrade times?

[Maxpwr]

.

[Maxpwr]

Ok found my previous post, pasted below. Basically you can add 1.5% inflation increase we got Jan 1st to those.

Sky regional 01/august/2014 - NEW

So we got our new pay scale announcement last night. It's like the most convoluted pay structure I've seen so I'll just break it down for you. We still have base salaries plus an hourly credit. Credit doubles and triples depending on your block hours over 80 or over 85. Over 90hrs is still overtime rate of 1.5 times your full salary plus credit.

Introduced a RRSP match up to 5% over 6 years.

Basically on your anniversary date you get a 2% raise.
On Jan 1st if each year you get a inflation increase based on the CPI to a max of 1.5%

We still have a 5% guaranteed profit share portion.
Now also get up to 2.5% OTP incentive bonus.

All that being said they I'll break it down for you with all the above minus the pension cuz that shouldn't be considered salary.

Based on 85hrs a month...

Yr1 Cpt: $82481. Yr1 FO: $49724
Yr2 Cpt: $85183. Yr2 FO: $51350
Yr3 Cpt: $87296. Yr3 FO: $52624
Yr4 Cpt: $89460. Yr4 FO: $53928
Yr5 Cpt: $91676. Yr5 FO: $55264
Yr6 Cpt: $93509. Yr6 FO: $56369

After 6 yrs we just get the CPI increases. We'll have to work on that later.

Those are the facts. Just the facts. Once again those numbers are based on 85hrs a month and include everything except per diems (duh!) and pension.

Min guaranteed 65 hrs

[ant_321]

Thanks a lot.

[gr8_2_av8]

Profit share for new hires? You sure about that?