Well, it's official. Sunwest has started laying off employees for the second time this year. This one bc they're losing the bag contract as of Oct 9/15(?). A bunch of the f/o's on the metro and ho's have got cpt positions with Orca so they're ok, but they're only keeping a few senior metro drivers, the rest are gone. I'm not sure how many on the maintenance side but from what I've heard is that morale there is at an all time low. The maintenance manager and DoM were 'hunting down mechanics' to give them their layoff notice. The weird thing is that some got a month notice with 2 weeks severance, BUT, if they didn't go to the labour board they would get an extra 2 weeks pay. This is only according to pilots I've talked to there so they have no idea why they exactly did that and I'm not even going to speculate. Sad to hear. Wish everyone there all the best.

Such is life. Companies go up and they go down. Seems to be the state in Alberta these days...

Anyway...that corner of the airport isn't doing well at all from what I've heard..Sunwest, Air Partners, and Albatross.

Might be a lot of available space around there to lease(or buy) in the not-too-distant future.

Didn't North Cariboo Air export (sold?) one of their Q400s recently?

flying_yyc wrote:...A bunch of the f/o's on the metro and ho's have got cpt positions with Orca so they're ok...

At least until they see how much lower Orca is going to pay them than Sunwest for doing the same job.

dhc# wrote:Didn't North Cariboo Air export (sold?) one of their Q400s recently?

Both are leaving, being parted out is the latest rumour.

A bunch of the f/o's on the metro and ho's have got cpt positions with Orca so they're ok

Yea - unfortunately that isn't going to last long as that contract is done at the end of the year.

And Orca is now going to use KA100's instead of metros.

I'm curious; whats up at air partners and albatross as mentioned above?

There is a posting for a Dash 8 mechanic on Avcanada. And layoff notices?

I'd hardly call it official when your source is "pilots I talked to." To the best of my knowledge, there have been no pilots laid off yet. It may happen, but until then...

my understanding is this is a short term soltion, the banks are going to start scanning checks to reconcile them in the new year. sunwest decided it wasnt worth the bother for 3 months and orca was sole bidder

my understanding is this is a short term soltion, the banks are going to start scanning checks to reconcile them in the new year. sunwest decided it wasnt worth the bother for 3 months and orca was sole bidder

Thats right and Orca didnt know that when they bid on them. They are going to lose a bunch of coin.

Skylink already got their notice - their runs back east out of Halifax are done Oct 1.

Orca didn't bid on anything.

I'm guessing boeingboy got shit-canned there once..

Why is it anytime someone says something negative - people jump on them for having worked there? Are they worried they made a wrong decision?

AN had no idea the contract was going to last 3 months and yet he's getting airplanes and hangers and all. He freaked when he was told about it.....

But whatever dude - your free to live in your dreamworld.

Sums up Alberta...

Ramppppppp

So If Skylink is done October 1st...who is responsible for those runs now?

No-one.
They are being done electronically.

boeingboy wrote:No-one.
They are being done electronically.

Gah It's true! No one neeeds mail anymore!

Is it just YVR or what's happening in YYC - has it been pretty steady state there at least? Any sign of recovery in the wings?

Oxi wrote:

dhc# wrote:Didn't North Cariboo Air export (sold?) one of their Q400s recently?

Both are leaving, being parted out is the latest rumour.

Very true. Both have been sent to the United States to face the axe

Any SunWesters out there? how's things ? would be good to hear from some insiders about the corporate flying situation.

Crickets..

brooks wrote:Crickets..

Pretty much sums up Aviation in Alberta.

Best place to be in aviation right now is not in aviation.

Trying to liquidate some of their jets, lost the bag run, oil sands are hurtin...

How do they pay to run that mammoth building/hangar they built?