I think it would be like shooting one self in the leg, or even the head, to admit to the fact that I work at AAI Headquarters in Iceland. I have a few comments on what has been said here, it will be interesting to see where this will take us.
First of all I want to comment on pilots resignations. They are a fact, but not to the extent described here. I don't have any numbers available, but I know they are far from being such that they will put the company on the spot. The discussion here on pprune might be what is causing the flood of applications, I'm told that the human resources department had to allocate one person to go through the pile. Having said that I admit that the majority of the applications is from pilots with less than 1000 hrs total time and no jet experience. That is not what AAI is looking for and those pilots need not apply.
Secondly I want to comment on the working conditions. The first thing a pilot has to realize when working for AAI is that AAI is not a scheduled airline. Rosters change, even every day! This is due to the fact that the airlines buying flight hrs from AAI change what they require AAI to fly for them. If for example a customer gets a cancellation on a big load that he planned to move on his aircraft, he will right away cancel a flight with AAI and allocate his fleet to move what AAI was meant to move. Then the customer lands another deal to move something, first thing he does is to call AAI and tell them that he will require their aircraft to move the load. AAI is working with the "over flow" from other companies, therefore it is impossible for the company it issue rosters and have them stick for the 15 or 30 days they are issued for. If pilots, who are on base, find this unacceptable, they are not working for the right company. I know that many times the operations department is having problem with pilots that don't want to accept a roster change. When they finally do so they call it a favor to the company. Is flying airplanes when you are a pilot, and you are getting paid for it, a favor for the company you work for or is it called doing ones job?
Third issue. Many times over there has been talk about the Icelandic pilots and their salary here on pprune. I'm not going to comment on any figures but would like to point out that Icelandic pilots have to pay between 30 and 40% tax of what they earn. Other pilots usually don't pay tax as Jerry and co pay through some off shore accounts. In total the Icelandic pilots take less home per month, but they also work less. Net income per flown hour is about the same, might be in favor of the Icelanders, but not to the extent that it should be the problem it is.
Forth. Limited resources to the flight operations department is a big problem. The company has for many years believed that too few pilots is a good thing. Who can agree on that?? We hope that the new VP of Flight Operations will change that. I've heard that he is planing to hire a bunch of new pilots, lets hope he does, it will ease the pressure on pilots and ops staff.
Number five. I saw someone comment on the proposed on/off system and called it a joke! The new VP of Flight Operations is trying to change the environment pilots work in. The first thing he does is to have pilots work 4 weeks and off for 10 days (please note that this is still just a proposal, nothing has been confirmed yet). It used to be that the pilots worked when the company was in high season, then they went home and came back when the business bloomed again. Now the company isn't experiencing as much of low and high seasons as it did, so many pilots find themselves being stuck on base for months and months before being able to go home to their loved ones. So what is wrong with this proposal? Keep an open mind to things that might be good for you, if you are not happy make sure you criticism is constructive. A positive voice is rather heard than I negative one.
Although I'm more on the positive side in this post than negative I should mention that I, as so many other, have negative comments about the company I (we) work for. But we are all hoping what things are getting better with new management, therefore I don't want to focus on the bad things, except when trying to fix them.
I could go on for quite some time, but I think that this is enough for now. I hope I get some comments from you guys, but please note that i will not answer rude or unfair comments or remarks. If you want comments from me be polite please.
Edited: Paragraph spacing.
Last edited by AAI_Operations; 20th May 2007 at 20:55.