Any planned hiring this year?

[7up]

Is WJ planning to hire FOs this year?

[dontcallmeshirley]

You should really be asking "With this reduction bid, how many years will it be until they start hiring again?"

[MaxAuto]

A reduction bid just means they are fat in some bases and skinny in others.

Screenshot_20250222_191336_Slack.jpg (256.66 KiB) Viewed 8445 times

[pelmet]

Sounds like they are running lean for a while until all the Sunwing merger happens and see how things settle out. Good opportunity for overtime.

[Canadaflyer46]

Sounds like they are running lean for a while until all the Sunwing merger happens and see how things settle out. Good opportunity for overtime.

Summer is gonna be a shit show. The company learned quickly they can reassign pairings without any penalty, so captains who bid for a 48 hour New York will have it taken away and put in open time while they’re given the min rest Regina that no one will pick up. Happened all last summer too. WJ will do anything to avoid upgrading people.
But yes, overtime is already plentiful which is unusual for this time of year.

[daedalusx]

, so captains who bid for a 48 hour New York will have it taken away and put in open time

And it’s gonna get snatched by whoever coded the fastest Flica bot.

[Aviator12]

From a pilot call a while back it will probably be late summer early fall before hiring resumes. Westjet training department will be busy training approx 80 sunwing pilots/month for the next 6 months. No room for OTS or upgrade training till integration is complete.

[TheLastonetoknow]

From a pilot call a while back it will probably be late summer early fall before hiring resumes. Westjet training department will be busy training approx 80 sunwing pilots/month for the next 6 months. No room for OTS or upgrade training till integration is complete.

What OTS person with half a brain would possibly consider coming here?

16ish yr right seat rot….. no dice

[Airspeed Addict]

Does WJ even hire DEC? Say if a CA from AC decided he wanted to switch teams, could he attempt for a DEC? Or is his only option to apply for an FO slot?

[daedalusx]

Does WJ even hire DEC? Say if a CA from AC decided he wanted to switch teams, could he attempt for a DEC? Or is his only option to apply for an FO slot?

lol.
Lmao even.

No.

[daedalusx]

From a pilot call a while back it will probably be late summer early fall before hiring resumes. Westjet training department will be busy training approx 80 sunwing pilots/month for the next 6 months. No room for OTS or upgrade training till integration is complete.

What OTS person with half a brain would possibly consider coming here?

16ish yr right seat rot….. no dice

If you live in YWG, YEG or YYC it’s an excellent choice regardless of the time to upgrade. I’d much rather be home every night than be junior NB botl reserve capt and be forced to live in an expensive shithole like YYZ.

[Aviator12]

Gotta remember those 16 year upgrades are based solely on retirements only. Doesn’t take into account airline growth, resignations, medical issues etc. Approx 28 tails coming onboard this year. Still lots on order. Trying to be optimistic.

[cdnavater]

Gotta remember those 16 year upgrades are based solely on retirements only. Doesn’t take into account airline growth, resignations, medical issues etc. Approx 28 tails coming onboard this year. Still lots on order. Trying to be optimistic.

Are you including Sunwing tails in that number?

[boeingboy]

Gotta remember those 16 year upgrades are based solely on retirements only. Doesn’t take into account airline growth, resignations, medical issues etc. Approx 28 tails coming onboard this year. Still lots on order. Trying to be optimistic.

Are you including Sunwing tails in that number?

18 Sunwing....9 Lynx....and maybe (realistically) half a dozen or so from Boeing.

[Rwy17]

A reduction bid just means they are fat in some bases and skinny in others.

Screenshot_20250222_191336_Slack.jpg

Do we even have any hint on what the alignment will be? Im expecting to be on the short end of the stick in terms of being pushed out of my base, and im starting to think about a game plan for what base might be the best for my seniority. I.E holding a block vs reserve

[JBI]

A reduction bid just means they are fat in some bases and skinny in others.

Screenshot_20250222_191336_Slack.jpg

Do we even have any hint on what the alignment will be? Im expecting to be on the short end of the stick in terms of being pushed out of my base, and im starting to think about a game plan for what base might be the best for my seniority. I.E holding a block vs reserve

No real answers/hints at the moment. A moderately informed guess is to expect that YYZ will not be as large as what the current combined numbers are showing. However, it's not certain how that will be distributed. While the general assumption is that there will be positions added at the western bases, I think it depends on a number of factors:
-this summer we're doing a lot more European destinations on the Max from YYZ and YHZ than we've done previously, how successful will they be?
-with the whole tariff situation and drop in US bookings, will we see some of those aircraft deployed on different routes? Domestic? More non-US sun destinations?
-will there be a decline in travel generally?
-Will Montrealers book Sunwing vacations more/less now that they are on WestJet planes?
-How many 737s will Boeing actually deliver this year?

Don't get me wrong, it sucks not knowing, but there are some pretty valid excuses as to why the numbers haven't been released.

[dontcallmeshirley]

Gotta remember those 16 year upgrades are based solely on retirements only. Doesn’t take into account airline growth, resignations, medical issues etc. Approx 28 tails coming onboard this year. Still lots on order. Trying to be optimistic.

The airline has been "growing" Encore for years now and has ended up at half the size it was in 2022. WestJet is holding a reduction bid and is still a shell of it's former glory.

Onex and WestJet management have proven time and time again have said one thing and done another. They have chosen the hard way and short term profit over long term sustainability. They have prioritized padding Onex's ROI over safety and reliability. There's a reason why they exploded three engines in a year and it's not because of design failures.

[fish4life]

Gotta remember those 16 year upgrades are based solely on retirements only. Doesn’t take into account airline growth, resignations, medical issues etc. Approx 28 tails coming onboard this year. Still lots on order. Trying to be optimistic.

The airline has been "growing" Encore for years now and has ended up at half the size it was in 2022. WestJet is holding a reduction bid and is still a shell of it's former glory.

Onex and WestJet management have proven time and time again have said one thing and done another. They have chosen the hard way and short term profit over long term sustainability. They have prioritized padding Onex's ROI over safety and reliability. There's a reason why they exploded three engines in a year and it's not because of design failures.

How many pilots does westjet (not including sunwing coming over) have now compared to the day before Onex bought them?

[nohojob]

A reduction bid just means they are fat in some bases and skinny in others.

Screenshot_20250222_191336_Slack.jpg

Do we even have any hint on what the alignment will be? Im expecting to be on the short end of the stick in terms of being pushed out of my base, and im starting to think about a game plan for what base might be the best for my seniority. I.E holding a block vs reserve

No real answers/hints at the moment. A moderately informed guess is to expect that YYZ will not be as large as what the current combined numbers are showing. However, it's not certain how that will be distributed. While the general assumption is that there will be positions added at the western bases, I think it depends on a number of factors:
-this summer we're doing a lot more European destinations on the Max from YYZ and YHZ than we've done previously, how successful will they be?
-with the whole tariff situation and drop in US bookings, will we see some of those aircraft deployed on different routes? Domestic? More non-US sun destinations?
-will there be a decline in travel generally?
-Will Montrealers book Sunwing vacations more/less now that they are on WestJet planes?
-How many 737s will Boeing actually deliver this year?

Don't get me wrong, it sucks not knowing, but there are some pretty valid excuses as to why the numbers haven't been released.

At the last town hall, they admitted that they didn't know their need yet.

[Canadaflyer46]

Apparently a ‘big announcement’ coming tomorrow. Although with how WJ loves an anticlimax that could mean nothing. They have sure curtailed any growth at this airline for a long time. Why Onex thought buying a disaster like Sunwing was a good idea is beyond me. Buckle in for 15 years in the right seat. Still might be the best option though if you choose to live in YYC/YEG/YWG and can live on FO pay.

[dontcallmeshirley]

Gotta remember those 16 year upgrades are based solely on retirements only. Doesn’t take into account airline growth, resignations, medical issues etc. Approx 28 tails coming onboard this year. Still lots on order. Trying to be optimistic.

The airline has been "growing" Encore for years now and has ended up at half the size it was in 2022. WestJet is holding a reduction bid and is still a shell of it's former glory.

Onex and WestJet management have proven time and time again have said one thing and done another. They have chosen the hard way and short term profit over long term sustainability. They have prioritized padding Onex's ROI over safety and reliability. There's a reason why they exploded three engines in a year and it's not because of design failures.

How many pilots does westjet (not including sunwing coming over) have now compared to the day before Onex bought them?

Encore was over 550 pilots in 2022 and is around 350 now from what I gather. As far as WestJet pilots, they just took in a few hundred Sunwing pilots, so they've increased.

[-42]

Is Westjet going to hire any CSA’s or groomers. First impressions are everything and I must say conditions for passengers both on the phone and when I get on a flight are the worst I have ever seen. What is management thinking? Don’t care? They should.

[daedalusx]

Is Westjet going to hire any CSA’s or groomers. First impressions are everything and I must say conditions for passengers both on the phone and when I get on a flight are the worst I have ever seen. What is management thinking? Don’t care? They should.

No joke the last clean WestJet plane I was in, was a Lynx tail which was pretty much brand new. The others were quite dirty and seems like every domestic flight I was in last month there was no agent to meet us at the gate for at least 10-15min.
Cabin crews also looked exhausted. Not a good look.

Flair on the other hand, clean planes and on time.

Just my anecdotal experience lately, maybe I’ve been unlucky.

[-42]

I am glad someone agrees. I can’t say if one airline is better than others, I really can’t. However travelling extensively over the years on several airlines I definitely see a trend and it’s not good. Gnarly gross table trays, carpet, seat rails, seats etc. My better half lost an earbud on the floor on a WJ flight recently and when I went to retrieve it needless to say what I saw under the seats was pretty bad. The ear bud stayed. Do flight crews still groom? Does anyone? Are CSA’s mostly automated now? I genuinely am curious.

[lostaviator]

We will see layoffs before hiring.