Student01

Any info on applying as a Ground Service Coordinator?
Is an A&P required?
Schedule?
Etc...?

Braniff DC8

I figured I'd post here as it pertains to Swift.

What does it (will it) mean for Swift crews? Seems like lots of growth, relative anyway. Will they have enough crew for 5/6 additional aircraft? What does it mean for upgrade and bases etc...Is home basing coming or currently being honored? The reason the basings issue is important is they can open and close on short notice and the pay is a bit low to chase bases. Also, limited jumpseat and no pass travel make it nearly impossible. I know, I'm a skipping record but I am honestly interested in Swift. I am type rated in the 737, PCs in the -400 and -800 but the package is a bit low. Yes, we know this already.

Does the company realize this and what communication, I know you can only say so much, is being given? I mean China is offering big $$$ to fly 737s so one could come and get some hours and be off. You could fly 5-10 years in China, bank some cash and either be done or come back and fly traffic watch.

My own personal take is that Swift will have a hard time finding and, or, retaining people with the current package, as will many others. This is a real opportunity for Swift and they've come around a bit, like Miami Air, but they need to come around more.

Discuss. Can we please keep it clean, factual and, non personal.

Thank as always.

pilotrob84

Bases are now IWA, MIA, and home based(gateway basing). First bid for changing bases should come out soon.

Slight pay raise effective July.

Now bidding lines. July bids have already been awarded so we will see how it works.

12 days off a month, except a very few lines have less.

As far as retaining pilots, management encourages us to go to legacy carriers. They only want to be competitive with our peers- Miami Air, Xtra, etc. So if our pilots start making the move to our competition, then they will up the compensation.

Ronin47

Any 401k matching, bonuses or profit sharing? What is the retirement package if any? When is your next contract?

Triggs

No 401k match as of right now, but if I was a betting man we will see it sooner than later. The company does do profit sharing occasionally. No contract here as we are currently non-union.

AU MD FLYER

[QUOTE=pilotrob84;2383951]

"Bases are now IWA, MIA, and home based (gateway basing). First bid for changing bases should come out soon."

"Slight pay raise effective July."

"Now bidding lines. July bids have already been awarded so we will see how it works."

"12 days off a month, except a very few lines have less."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Any new updates to the pilot bases -or- home basing?

So, just how much was the pay raise starting this month (July, 17)??? Is this different than the $103 / $65 1st year Capt. / F/O rates posted earlier in this thread?

With 31 total days in July (instead of 30), was min. days OFF on "most lines" at 13 days? How many bid lines have more days OFF, and what is the max. days OFF on a monthly bid line?

How many bid lines and reserve lines each month, and what are the average flight hours per bid line? I'm guessing this would vary by base and type of flying?

How often do pilots break the 60 hour guarantee?

Any news on additional aircraft this year and upcoming new-hire classes?

mexipilot84

[QUOTE=AU MD FLYER;2389507]

Bases still remain IWA MIA and VIP. VIP includes AEX now.

1st yr FO is $66/hr at 60hr guarantee. 2nd jumps to $70/hr

1st yr CA 117.

Bid lines vary by base type. VIP I believe was 15 CA and 15 FO lines. Combination of stby and different flying. Right now it's summer so it's a combination of concert flying, vacation flying and ICE. MIA right now has vacation flying, cargo flying, Cuba and Caracas flights start on 2 weeks. IWA is ICE and wendover casino flying.

Breaking guarantee is easy doing ICE. VIP flying it's very difficult unless you're doing vacation flying which we're doing now. MIA can be tough too if you're only doing HAV.

We're still aggressively hiring, class in July and August already scheduled. Looks like hiring on going as attrition picks up. Many have left to spirit, AA and corporate gigs. Can't keep up with growth and attrition. Basically overtime delight at the moment.

AU MD FLYER

[QUOTE=mexipilot84;2389569]-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mexipilot84,

Thanks for the quick reply and informative update.

So, a 13.6% increase for the 1st year Capt. pay ($117) and only a 1.5% increase for the new-hire F/O pay ($66)? That seems a bit off if a company wants to attract new applicants given the current industry demand for pilots... not to say that the Capt.'s don't deserve it, or even more.

From what I've read here, I assume that the VIP base is "home-based", and the company buys the pilot a ticket to go where the company needs them (ie. AEX), or wherever the vacation flight is departing from.

With a combination of standby reserve and scheduled charter flights on a bid line, how many hours per day is the pilot paid for sitting reserve? Is callout on reserve a long call (12 hours) or short call (2 hours) type? And how many hours is the reserve window (RAP)?

Sounds like 12 days OFF a month is the MAXIMUM in both 30 & 31 day months?

Thanks again, it's very helpful since Swift does not have an APC profile in the Charter section... AU.

mexipilot84

[QUOTE=AU MD FLYER;2389586]

The pay is not great, least they've pushed for increase twice in the last year. They still don't understand that the regionals are starting to pay better and it's where they need to get people from. I hope they catch on some time.

VIP is home based, they buy you a ticket to the acft.

I mean you're under a guarantee of 60hrs whether you're flying or on stby. If you want to get technical you're looking at about 3.3hrs of pay for sitting around or block or better. Only ones that really get short call reserve are the MIA crews. Long call is 12hrs short is 2.

Been trying to get swift added to the profiles

PilotnotPirate

Swift Air needs to hire a lot of pilots in the next 6 months or so, they are looking at their competitors as Xtra and Miami Air and have adjusted pay so that Captains at Swift will earn more for the first 5 years than both of those airlines. The problem is that they don't see the regionals as competitors and operationally that is correct but they don't seem to realize (yet) that they are "fishing" from the same pool.
I fully expect that matching 401k is the next thing to be offered and I wouldn't be surprised to see another pay raise soon as they try to find an acceptable pay point that will attract and also keep pilots.
Swift has big plans, they are looking to have 21 planes, including 5 800s in the near future, the sales team seem to know what they are doing, the ownership have the funds and now with the Eastern connection who knows which direction they want to go. But still, there's probably 3 or 4 regionals that look like a better option at the moment so it will be interesting to see how they will handle the whole pay and QOL issue.