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Swift Air - The truth

Old 05-24-2019, 06:55 AM
  #391  
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Old 05-24-2019, 08:04 AM
  #392  
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Originally Posted by randomroute View Post
Its not a good place right now. Everyone would agree. If your company management can be pi$$ed at you for inquiring about upgrade (constantly shifting goalposts), unfairness about work rules, merit that is basically valueless, and have enough time to intentionally keep someone down, they are a worthless group.

Theyve built and maintained the environment of confusion, carelessness and minimal effort. This is the environment fostered by the 119’s. Guys who have come from anything but a functional airline-with any real airline procedures and processes from payroll to T.EM. -and could care less about modern best practices and true leadership ability. They don't respect or even consider the value or experience in those that work here. If youre a manager and you make false promises, and not expect there to be fallout when its learned there was no intention to keep them-youre breeding contempt and losing respect (thats the nicest way to call it).

I made sacrifices to come here for a defined purpose. I was sold a $h!t sandwich. Others have been too, and its coming to a head now. People are hiding their frustrations. From the most senior, to guys just out of class.

If youre not a captain here, youre a piece of $#!t . Youre not a ‘valued’ employee, and youre not paid.

What would make you happy? No matter where you go there is things you won’t be happy with even guys at the top complain about something. A wise old man once told me don’t expect anything from anyone if they come through well you were wowed, and never say anything negative anywhere about who you work for. Just my 2 cents sorry your unhappy and they fix what’s going on here for the good of everyone.
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Old 05-25-2019, 02:33 PM
  #393  
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Originally Posted by Bombinha View Post
iAero already regretted the moment they bought this place.
Doubt this!

I suppose next week when the vision of iAero and Swifts integration comes out, everyone may have more guidance to what is coming.

This is speculation alone by me here, it would appear the deal done with iAero and Swift, was structured similar to the Eastern and Xtra deals. It is possible Swift will re-brand, to get away from the previously reputations left in past public reviews, as they push closer to starting scheduled service, but will be the same underlying company as whole.

Essentially, Swift will remain Swift, with the same personnel. iAero is a shell company created to act as a holding company to bring three entities under one umbrella, AeroThrust, AeroTech, and Swift Air.

The former 4 billionaires that owned Swift, and the several managers whom hold a smaller stake in Swift "sold" a portion of the interest of the company to buy into the umbrella company, iAero. So now they will not only own Swift, but have vested interest in AeroThrust and AeroTech. I use "sold" loosely, as like Eastern and Xtra it is meeting of minds with another entity, to trade interests and assets to better all as a whole.

It will benefit all those with ownership, with a holistic partnership, to maximize purchasing powers, control expenses, consolidate, increase work, and to maximize profits, while allowing all to grow in market share. I wouldn't expect "new" owners to walk in the door, it's the same folks working with another group of like minded folks under one umbrella.

There is a lot of potential at Swift Air, contrary to what some believe.

While working for an airline is high paced, and in that pace is highly dynamic. It moves a lot slower on the business side due to the highly regulated nature. The changes many of us want to see are slow to come to fruition, and often meet setbacks with personnel changes, company structure changes, and other challenges that come up everyday.

Honestly, a good bipartisan working contract for all labor parties and company would go a long way to set expectations, and accountability. Bipartisan is the key word here, as all past working contracts have all been penned from the company, with no direct contribution from the working groups governed in said contracts, except the work group managers, who some if not all have a conflict of interest as they are given a piece of ownership to hold their title.

Additionally transparency, as there are several prominent folks whom flip flop loyalty from their work group to work backdoor deals to benefit themselves alone, costing the work groups as a whole.

Swift grew seven fold during my tenure. I contributed everyday to help the company grow for the better, to make it better for myself and my peers. I maintained my integrity everyday, and in good and bad times, never jeopardized my integrity, nor did anything illegal. While I needed to CYA often and bring things to attention more than I should have had to, as a supplemental self releasing captain. I was never forced to do anything unsafe and never gave an inch to do anything unsafe or illegal. I protected myself, but more importantly protected the air carrier certificate everyday, I utilized the ASAP program when needed as this program increases safety and results.

I always understood, every person in the company is expendable, from the CEO, COO, to myself. The most valuable thing at Swift Air is the Air Carrier Certificate. If that is suspended, or revoked, due to some cowboy antics, that cowboy would be jeapordizing not only their way of living, but every employees livelihood! Don't be a cowboy.

Swift Air is a small airline with lots of growth and teething problems. It also has been able to run lean and mean to maximize financials since bankruptcy exit in late 2013 and impress numerous investors. As an airline grows it inevitably slows and overhead costs grow. Swift has been trying to control these growing costs to stay attractive to buyers and investors a like, and this has caused much distress and frustration in the past year or so with the rapid growth understandably. I hope with the new holistic structure iAero will provide, some of the focus can return to focus on the company culture and improve QOL for all, and see increased incentives to steer toward a retention employer instead of turnover employer and increase QOL and benefits.

For many of those whom are new to the supplemental/135 world, Swift may not be the best fit. Most of the regional flying has the QOL modeled after mainline flying schedules (3-4 day trips), but lack much of the benefits. Swift will meet you in the middle on the benefits, but lacks good contract rules, soft-pay, and misses the mark on some QOL unless you live in base. It may be challenging for anyone coming from a regional background. Especially those with a young family or new wife. But if you enjoy bigger chunks of time off, with bigger chunks of working days, Swift may be of benefit, especially if you just need the B737 type to set yourself apart and be competitive to a growing pool of RJ pilots all applying to the same jobs as you. I wouldn't recommend anyone taking this job or any job based on upgrade times, as those fluctuate drastically based on growth, contracts, and to a lesser extend attrition. Just remember every job has its pros and cons, I made the best out of everyday with Swift, good and bad, and landed my dream job, due to my experiences, and the people I met and worked with at Swift.

Praise to Mexipilot for all his hard work. He is a great guy, with a young family, and has probably done more to better Swift than anyone else I know. I can't wait for the opportunity write a letter of recommendation for him given the opportunity!
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Old 05-25-2019, 03:25 PM
  #394  
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Originally Posted by i5xswipe View Post
Doubt this!

I suppose next week when the vision of iAero and Swifts integration comes out, everyone may have more guidance to what is coming.

This is speculation alone by me here, it would appear the deal done with iAero and Swift, was structured similar to the Eastern and Xtra deals. It is possible Swift will re-brand, to get away from the previously reputations left in past public reviews, as they push closer to starting scheduled service, but will be the same underlying company as whole.

Essentially, Swift will remain Swift, with the same personnel. iAero is a shell company created to act as a holding company to bring three entities under one umbrella, AeroThrust, AeroTech, and Swift Air.

The former 4 billionaires that owned Swift, and the several managers whom hold a smaller stake in Swift "sold" a portion of the interest of the company to buy into the umbrella company, iAero. So now they will not only own Swift, but have vested interest in AeroThrust and AeroTech. I use "sold" loosely, as like Eastern and Xtra it is meeting of minds with another entity, to trade interests and assets to better all as a whole.

It will benefit all those with ownership, with a holistic partnership, to maximize purchasing powers, control expenses, consolidate, increase work, and to maximize profits, while allowing all to grow in market share. I wouldn't expect "new" owners to walk in the door, it's the same folks working with another group of like minded folks under one umbrella.

There is a lot of potential at Swift Air, contrary to what some believe.

While working for an airline is high paced, and in that pace is highly dynamic. It moves a lot slower on the business side due to the highly regulated nature. The changes many of us want to see are slow to come to fruition, and often meet setbacks with personnel changes, company structure changes, and other challenges that come up everyday.

Honestly, a good bipartisan working contract for all labor parties and company would go a long way to set expectations, and accountability. Bipartisan is the key word here, as all past working contracts have all been penned from the company, with no direct contribution from the working groups governed in said contracts, except the work group managers, who some if not all have a conflict of interest as they are given a piece of ownership to hold their title.

Additionally transparency, as there are several prominent folks whom flip flop loyalty from their work group to work backdoor deals to benefit themselves alone, costing the work groups as a whole.

Swift grew seven fold during my tenure. I contributed everyday to help the company grow for the better, to make it better for myself and my peers. I maintained my integrity everyday, and in good and bad times, never jeopardized my integrity, nor did anything illegal. While I needed to CYA often and bring things to attention more than I should have had to, as a supplemental self releasing captain. I was never forced to do anything unsafe and never gave an inch to do anything unsafe or illegal. I protected myself, but more importantly protected the air carrier certificate everyday, I utilized the ASAP program when needed as this program increases safety and results.

I always understood, every person in the company is expendable, from the CEO, COO, to myself. The most valuable thing at Swift Air is the Air Carrier Certificate. If that is suspended, or revoked, due to some cowboy antics, that cowboy would be jeapordizing not only their way of living, but every employees livelihood! Don't be a cowboy.

Swift Air is a small airline with lots of growth and teething problems. It also has been able to run lean and mean to maximize financials since bankruptcy exit in late 2013 and impress numerous investors. As an airline grows it inevitably slows and overhead costs grow. Swift has been trying to control these growing costs to stay attractive to buyers and investors a like, and this has caused much distress and frustration in the past year or so with the rapid growth understandably. I hope with the new holistic structure iAero will provide, some of the focus can return to focus on the company culture and improve QOL for all, and see increased incentives to steer toward a retention employer instead of turnover employer and increase QOL and benefits.

For many of those whom are new to the supplemental/135 world, Swift may not be the best fit. Most of the regional flying has the QOL modeled after mainline flying schedules (3-4 day trips), but lack much of the benefits. Swift will meet you in the middle on the benefits, but lacks good contract rules, soft-pay, and misses the mark on some QOL unless you live in base. It may be challenging for anyone coming from a regional background. Especially those with a young family or new wife. But if you enjoy bigger chunks of time off, with bigger chunks of working days, Swift may be of benefit, especially if you just need the B737 type to set yourself apart and be competitive to a growing pool of RJ pilots all applying to the same jobs as you. I wouldn't recommend anyone taking this job or any job based on upgrade times, as those fluctuate drastically based on growth, contracts, and to a lesser extend attrition. Just remember every job has its pros and cons, I made the best out of everyday with Swift, good and bad, and landed my dream job, due to my experiences, and the people I met and worked with at Swift.

Praise to Mexipilot for all his hard work. He is a great guy, with a young family, and has probably done more to better Swift than anyone else I know. I can't wait for the opportunity write a letter of recommendation for him given the opportunity!
Idk who you are but that was a good recap. Sort of summarizes my experience as well.
They need to realize growth isn't all about airframes but growth means investing in structured airline departments. They need to clean house of all those manager with bad records and bring people with LLC and scheduled experience. They need to invest on a better digital platform for all different departments as well as man those departments properly.
Best of luck,
hella out.
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Old 05-26-2019, 09:04 AM
  #395  
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Originally Posted by randomroute View Post
No one questions what Mexi does.



Now, let’s cut the crap. All you guys here at Swift that have the whole “Ive made the best of Swift” attitude BECAUSE YOU GUYS ARE CAPTAINS!



Regardless of the low relative pay, you can meet the cost of living. You can own a home. You can have expensive hobbies, you can goto work and (here at Swift) do absolutely nothing but call for a checklist. The amount of money a captain can make at Swift would make quite apot of regional/part 135/LCC pilots strongly consider switching. Which is what happened to myself and others. We made the leap expecting the implied guarantee of extremely fast upgrades. Theres guys at Swift on their FIRST jet as PIC WITH LESS THAN 300 in type. You think they are complaining about cost of living and broken promises? Of course not! They are getting begged to fly!



When you look at all the incidents and accidents that Swift Air has experienced theres always one common question “WHAT IN THE ABSOLUTE EFF WAS THAT CAPTAIN THINKING?!?!”



Answer: They werent, they were just lucky guys that fell into the left seat of a 737. I like the people I work with. They are cool. No one here can say our coworkers suck. Its the people pulling the strings that make this place sucky. And Im not talking about ‘executive level’ management.



So yeah, write about how great it is, but provide some context of full disclosure.



Being an F/O at swift sucks a$$.



Being an F/Onat swift and watching contract pilots that are getting paid more than you waiting in the jetbridge sucks a$$.



Being at a company where management allows foreign workers to come in to subvert the seniority list sucks a$$.



So yeah, keep talking about how its not that bad.


I’m doing OE with the contract pilots, they’re not making more than our guys in Europe, apparently they had to pay for their visas, medicals and other fees to their broker too. Less per diem per day too. So they’re not breaking the bank as everyone else thinks. Not to mention the snag that not all of them have the visas to be transiting in and out of the US every day which has affected getting their OE done. Only a few of them poses the crew visas that allow multiple re-entry. So a lot of what they need to work here is not sponsored by swift or their contractor.

Not everyone had an instantaneous upgrade here. I spent 8 months working my butt off here as an FO over 4 years ago. Then when it did happen spent another 8 months waiting to finish OE, because we were so short new FOs took priority in being trained. I don’t know what luxuries we live in? If someone is making a lot of money here it’s because they’ve taken away a lot of their time off to make it.

The best strategy as I try to tell new guys is do good around here, the more you stir the hornets nest they’re going to see that as you’re going to cause problems as a captain and they don’t want that. Remember the roots of this place has always been the VIP flying, a level head and ounce of humility go along way here. Not just for the company but for the customers. Happy customers become repeat customers which help all our livelihoods here. It’s a butterfly effect. We have people who have been waiting a while to upgrade and have finally been given the opportunity here shortly to start the process. Most who have worked their butt off building the 121 time they didn’t have. The road hasn’t been easy but they’ve stayed the course! We have really good people here and when I see them have the opportunity to advance makes it sad that I won’t be able to fly with them anymore because they’ll be in the left seat.

Remember this is a small place and everyone knows everything. Good or bad it goes up the grape vine quick. It’s not like a big airline where your number comes up and it’s only a matter of whether you make it or wash out through upgrade, where no one knows or cares who you are. There’s definitely a human factor to it here, which is good and bad. But I feel they see it as a viability for their customers to trust the person they’ve put in charge of 189 pax or 68 hockey players who pay millions a year to fly with us. Believe me when they spot an issue with someone they’ve put in that position they will be quick to react. Fly standard, always cover your @$$ and be ready to back up your inhibitions when you claim something is un-airworthy, unsecure or outside of the realm of safety. Because if you’re wrong they will call you out quick!
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Old 05-26-2019, 09:15 PM
  #396  
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Originally Posted by randomroute View Post
Promotion that follows seniority.
Pay commensurate with the experience level they want to attract.
At the risk of kicking a hornets nest.....One of the big things wrong with aviation is seniority based promotion. It hurts the pilot group and hurts safety. Why shouldn’t an experienced Captain be able to take their skills and go to an airline with better working conditions? Seems to work well with Doctors, Lawyers, University professors, Baseball players etc.
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Old 05-27-2019, 07:23 PM
  #397  
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Originally Posted by maxjet View Post
At the risk of kicking a hornets nest.....One of the big things wrong with aviation is seniority based promotion. It hurts the pilot group and hurts safety. Why shouldn’t an experienced Captain be able to take their skills and go to an airline with better working conditions? Seems to work well with Doctors, Lawyers, University professors, Baseball players etc.
Because they can do their job"better" than the other players. As airline pilots, we are required to do our job exactly the same way every time according to SOP, so how do you promote people on anything else than seniority. I totally get corporate being different because customer service/ going the extra mile (did 8 years) and before that was upgraded way ahead of seniority at a merit based ACMI, because I worked my ass off. Having anything but seniority is a can of worms because people will go the extra mile to get the job done.
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Old 05-27-2019, 09:07 PM
  #398  
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i5xswipe,

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Old 05-28-2019, 09:23 AM
  #399  
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Originally Posted by randomroute View Post
I had a feeling you’d like that.



Mexi, if you were a pilot at any other company, would you like to see your company hire pilots off the street out of convenience (for both sides)? Or hire the guys that have made the sacrifice to come to a company that “wasn't so hot” in hopes of making it better in time with the right attitude and hard work?



Because Swift said “eff all that”.



And lets expand on those guys that have been here for years that are only now getting to upgrade. Why is it taking them so long to be considered? The answer is crystal clear, either they needed 1000 qualifying hours (which is rare because Swift only hires at 2500tt right?) or they arent ready. Thats it. No nonsense about it. The contract move has ****ed off SO many employees of this already small group. So who’s wrong and who’s right? Who’s being dramatic and who’s being reasonable? Im like you, Ive got a young family, I got responsibilities, I got them bills too bro! And for the record, not everyone in europe is making 120 hours. Im not. Im collecting a GUARANTEE. You guys know exactly why people come here, its not for the 401K/A or the travel benefits or the ability to fly a Cessna 402 with jet engines and 150 seats...



And to answer the question about upgrading by seniority...well why the hell wouldnt you? Its 2019, aviation standards become stricter and safer by the day. If a person cant hack an airline checkride that consists if the same maneuvers youve been doing your entire career, then they shouldnt be in an airliner. The ability to perform is on the individual placed in the FAA approved training program. Simple logic. Every major airline that doesnt have an intense recruiting team has a technical interview to at least gauge awareness. You think any Swift contract pilots had a technical interview? How about the DECs? How about traditionally hired pilots?



Whats a TDZ?

What is the point of an autobrake system?

Runway condition analysis/performance?

Route verification?

Post flight performance analysis?

TEM?



Or not*



Edit reason:too many errors in spelling and grammar because of too many PBR’s because thats all a Swift F/O can afford to eat. Haha


Been there worked at regionals that grew quick and hired street captains, it’s nothing new. The difference was that the contract provided bypass pay for those that met upgrade requirements, tools months to solution, but we got paid at least. We don’t have that luxury here for pay protection or scope clause. It’s just the way it is for now. As this place grows there will be no choice but to come together into a cba or internal system of checks and balances. It’s just the reality of it.

We didn’t really hire street CAs they were just dubbed CAs at the end of training by management, from December of 2018 we stepped up the hiring process to make formalities and end the phone interviews. It allowed us to screen and get better candidates and ask questions that relate to the job. In that learning process we have eliminated Skype interviews and gone to face to face only. It has helped us weed out guys who lie on their apps and people who just don’t have the knowledge or character for this kind of operation.

Who management selects is above my pay grade. I just want to promote our senior guys who are waiting for their shot. Luckily they will have their shot here soon.

Unfortunately in this kind of environment as it grows it can’t promote and grow at the same time until we balance out personnel wise, where they can afford to pull FOs offline to upgrade them without shutting down the operation. Sadly they can only do them a few at a time. The guys that upgrade in February it was a big impact operationally that even our CP was flying and they paying guys overtime to keep the flying going.
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Old 05-28-2019, 12:39 PM
  #400  
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The Happy Swift Family
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