hoover

Definitely and the clacker will lull you to sleep

SoFloFlyer

Anyone have any updates on the company?

mexipilot84

On going hiring, still growing. 2 planes in Lima getting painted one coming from France this week.

With March class hoping to be somewhere around 180 pilots.

Everyone is eagerly waiting info on European flying this summer. They still say 3-5 month tdy in Europe.

March madness begins next month and starts the wind down of ncaa and into hockey playoffs.

Sounds like 4-5 airplanes doing vacation express in the summer.

1 doing VIP for a concert tour.

Further expansion in MIA.

DOD approval completed.

New company doing hotel bookings replacing travelliance(Indian mafia) in the next couple of weeks.

Hellafo

Also aproximately 5 captains have resigned in one month, no pay raises in sight.

SoFloFlyer

This seems promising. Has training and crew scheduling improve... and all the other issues? Also, how long is upgrade?

mexipilot84

Training has mostly been brought in house, trying to get away from panam instructors. Have our own TCE and our own sim instructors which is helping bring standardization from the get go.

Crew scheduling is still evolving. They’ve hired a lot of new people. MIA schedules have improved to 4on 4off patterns this month they have 14 day off lines. New hotel vendor which I hope will improve from the garbage we had with travelliance. It’s not perfect but I’ve yet to hear of an airline where no one complains about crew scheduling for one thing or another. They increased home basing slots to 42 crews(84 Pilots)

Every thing else is just evolving as it goes, we have our problems like everyone else. Despite the challenges in growing they’ve been able to stay afloat. Blue one is still being worked on for our scheduling needs. I guess we’re going to a new dispatching software away from navtech.

Every department has increased in size from HR to payroll. It’s not easy tripling in size in the last 3.5 years.

mexipilot84

Don’t think we’ve lost anyone that made a detrimental impact. I expect more to go especially those in MIA probing that new relaunch of world airways. They can have it! We still have a very good amount of people who do a lot of good here and I am definitely proud to say we have a lot of young hungry blood in our ranks now going through training. You probably need to see the full story on why some of these people left, definitely more to it than pay. We have FOs making 70K a year. Some CAs making close to 200K. If you’re not making money here I don’t know what you’re doing wrong. My first year here even on salary back then with overtime made about $65K

We’re supposed to get some sort of bonus in the spring as a retention bonus for the cadre that’s been here. New hires have their 25K bonus.

In recruiting we’ve been trying to make waves on the pay side as competition around us evolves. I think the hardest part is trying to sell the company while you do pay increases, doubt that helps sell if you have a high over head especially for the new owners to be attracted. So I understand that from a business stand point.

I think before pay raises we need an increase in soft pay. That can raise pay quick. With basics like this when a pay increase happens you can make more than with a bonus.
-100% deadhead pay
-min day guarantee(those doing 1 Cuba can feel that one).
- credit push over a credit threshold to get add pay for the month after going over like 85hrs would be nice.
-per diem increase
-401K matching.
-min pay for a ready reserve day

We’ve had discussions with the COO about it. I don’t think we’ll see anything till after the spring. But I think this is where we have to start solidifying work rules for the future. What we have now is a vast improvement over our salary and block pay we used to have. Just needs some tweaking.

Hellafo

I appreciate your reply as it adds solutions to the current problems.
I think the min day credit is a must, especially for home based crews.
Deadhead pay I don't think it's possible because of the ACMI nature of business.
With the new company and discounted hotel rates, it will be common practice to not get points for stays.
I did hear a rumor of a $30/hr raise.
Bottom line, pay attracts people and work rules make people stay.
I'd like to see more accountability and time lines on the crew scheduling department. Last minute, middle seat bookings are far too common.

SoFloFlyer

Thanks for the reply, guys! Swift has been on my radar since I live in MIA and it wouldn’t be a bad gig for my situation.

mexipilot84

For the MIA and IWA it’s a great easy gig. Home every night. Can’t beat that!