Anyone have any current info on the details of this outfit?

The previous threads have gotten a little stale.

Any currently employed Focus drivers please chime in about the usual concerns like pay,pay during training,QOL issues,schedules....etc

Thanks in advance
SF

 

I have a friend who is a Captain over there. He is gone about 17-19 a month. He just took another job in Corporate. I think he makes about 65K a year. I wouldn't fly a 747 for 65K, but that's me.

Good Luck-

 

65k for a B747 Captain? and gone 17-19days/mnth to boot?

Screw that.

Thanks
SF

 

Intercourse that company..... whoever they are. $65k/yr for any widebody captian is plan nitroginous waste!

 

65K can not be right. That must be his new pay at the corp job. Only the most desparate would fly a 747 for that kind of money.

 

Walt, there are alot of 'desperate' pilots out there.

 

If I remember correctly, Basic Math was something I needed to know to get through flight school. Basic Math tells me if a career does not pay, then its time to find another career.

 

Captains make 98/hr/60, FO's 59/hr/60 first year. This puts them ahead of Southern and Tradewinds, but behind Atlas. My guess now is everyone with few exceptions will be hired to the right seat, some with the promise of a type rating and move into the left seat after successful completion of sim training so count on 3 months of training pay at $1000 a month plus perdiem of 36 a day. Another thing about them thats is not good as far as pay is concerned is any extra days worked or flying over 60hrs is not done month by month. It is done in two month blocks. So you can't think of it as flying over 60 or working past your 19 days you owe. You have to think of it as flying over 120 (60/hr/mo for two months) or working over 38 days (19/days/mo for two months). This is only done to benefit the company. So they can work you 100 hours one month and then have you sitting on your ass the next month so they don't have to pay extra.

As far as the company is concerned, a bunch of thugs are running it. Coming from mostly failed 727 cargo operators and they are bringing the poison of those failed outfits to Focus. Although the airline has a lot of money, crews DH to Europe and China flying economy, and they typically expose the limits of the FAR's by using min crew rest and 30 hour crew duty days. Currently 19 days a month out on the raod. But that may change a little as the get awarded some more permanent wet lease agreements.

Good things are the aircraft are kept up well, hotel accomodations are usually good, and they are home based. But when Focus gets CASS and jumpseat agreements with the majors, there will be bases. This is suppose to happen within the next 6 months.

I can't see how the base thing is going to work. They assign you periods in two month blocks that are your scheduled work days, but my freinds that work there all say they aren't going to jumpseat out to there assigned bases unless they are actually scheduled to fly - and the flying schedule changes by the minute. Who wants to pay for a crash pad or a hotel room at their own expense when you don't know when you are to fly?

My freinds working there aren't happy and I believe this is the norm. Maybe they will change things but the company is screaming right now for a union through the way they treat their crews. I hope this helps.

 

There’s Cargo 360... All you need is your Social Security Number, application, pre-employment testing and background fees to be paid by you, and wait there’s more. But wait... there's more... if you act now, you can sign a training bond to cover your expenses.

Of course there justification for the privilege of applying with Cargo 360 is that their management is from DAL. Hmmmm.

 

Actually they pay a little better than Focus, maybe on par with Atlas.

But your right, what a priveledge it would be to work at Cargo 360. I think they are so full of themselves that the Cargo 360 management thinks we should pay them for the priveledge of working there.

Too bad their proving runs went so poorly.