Air Wisconsin QOL?
 

For those of you working for Air Willy, what is the quality of life like? Are people happy?

Is there a training contract?

Whats the most juniour base?

Cheers!
Boze

Depends on who you talk to, as it probably does at every airline. The true colors of this company are shown when you spend an extended period of time on reserve. Our reserve section of the contract is the weakest part, and there is essentially nothing in there to prevent the company from doing basically whatever they want with you for the entire reserve sequence. You will start out with a day trip or a 2 day, and it will always end up a 5 day with a DH back to base getting in as late as possible. Or so it has been in my experience. That, and you can almost always count on being junior manned. It can be your last day of reserve, and they will not release you because they want to keep you available for a junior man the next day. Since you're obligated to answer your phone, and we're on call for 15 hours out of the day, it's a huge convenience for them to keep us on call. I was junior manned at least 3 times last month, all of which I had to answer the phone since I was on call. We are limited to 10 junior mans a year, but it's still a joke. They assume that if they have you on the phone, no matter what the circumstance you are available. I have refused them in the past, but they will **** and moan and threaten you like you are single handily causing the downfall of the company.

With that being said, once you do get a line, things improve dramatically. Although I live in base and commutable lines don't matter to me. I hear that the lines have gotten pretty bad for commuters with the opening of RDU and LGA bases. Before that, I was a junior line holder in PHL and could generally get a commutable line on both ends.

As far as the junior base, I'm not sure what that is anymore. It used to be LGA, but now I hear that they have the most commutable lines, and I think it went fairly senior. RDU is the most senior base. I've been here 3 years and am still on reserve there.

No training contract.

From my personal experience at AWAC Jan 06-Nov 07, commuting = QOL sucks (regardless of seniority), living in domicile = QOL decent to very good.

That's still pretty accurate today. With the exception of LGA, no other base has commuter friendly lines. You'll find an occasional completely commutable trip, but the norm is to find lines that either have all early shows or all late finishes. You'll even find plenty of dreadful lines with early shows and late finishes.

Those things being said, you could still do a lot worse. If you are interested in living in domicile, you will find that your QOL is actually pretty darn good. The pay is about as good as you're going to find at a regional, especially on the FO side. The junior manning has been out of control over the summer, but hopefully with the new hire classes coming in that will bring things back to a more acceptable staffing level.

Sucks for commuters. Pay is good.

So I'm FO for AWAC living in philly and life isn't so bad. I have 15 days off this month (I'm about 15 lines up from the bottom of the line holders), and I tend to work alot. Living in base, I have the mentality that I'll go to work and pick up day trips that start early while the girlfriend is working. Today I picked up a 4 hour day trip that got done early and is paid at time and half. This year I'm on track to make close to 50k (I work alot) and life generally isn't bad. However, my first year on property on reserve was awful and I commuted. I honestly thought of leaving at that point, every trip was uncommutable (sp?) and being on reserve was the worst. If you live in base, I'd wager that this company is about the best you can get.

Thanks for the feedback everyone. Seems pretty consistent.

Cheers!

Most new hires are getting based just about anywhere, but it seems the most junior base is ORF still.

Any word on if the hiring is going to continue. I placed an app like 2 months ago and it has no been review yet. Someone else I know placed an app two weeks ago and it was already reviewed! Any way I have been after Air Wisconsin for a while, if anyone on the inside has any tips on the hiring process it would be appreciated.

I read some where GSO could be a domicile, or is it only RDU?

I recently interviewed there, I am waiting to hear back the outcome. I currently live out in Seattle, so what ever base I am assigned if I get a job there is going to be a long haul of a commute. I went to college in Columbus Ohio, and have been playing with the idea of moving back there. Would the commute from CMH be easier than from SEA? Or does it matter, commuting is commuting and it always sucks? Thanks for any insight form the folks who've been doing it a while.