Swoop
From another forum, I am taking the liberty of pasting someone else's comment here so anyone looking to come here from an expat position has a better understanding of what is going on at the moment. I felt this was well written and explains the situation very well without any emotional language attached.
Why would anyone want to go to Swoop?
#1 Post by Oldcommercialpilot » Mon Jan 22, 2018 12:26 pm
I just wanted to post some frank information about the reality of Swoop Airlines for any young pilots weighing this as a career move. I am clearly against Swoop and what it represents to the aviation profession in Canada so I fully acknowledge that I am writing this from a biased point of view. However, ask ANY pilot at WestJet or Air Canada, and they will likely tell you that the following is accurate:
Career Progression - Swoop is not WetJet. There is not and never will be any form of flow-through agreement from Swoop to WestJet. In fact, between the ALPA hiring ban and the fact that nearly every WJ pilot feels this is an attack on the profession I would say it would most certainly hurt your chances of going to WestJet In the future. Even if you somehow managed to get on with WJ the working environment would be toxic and I most certainly would not want to be an ex-Swoop pilot going into any training/check-ride event with a WJ captain & instructor. Would you really want that looming over your head for your entire career?
Uncertainty - WJ has launched an Unfair Labour Practices complaint against ALPA. ALPA will likely do the same in the coming weeks. Then there is the almost-certain filing of Common Employer status, etc. In other words, this is about to get very messy for a very long time and there is no telling how this is going to play out after the courts/arbitrators/CIRB are done. I'm curious what Swoop is even telling their applicants in the interviews. I'm not entirely sure how they can even hire any pilots without knowing if they are legally allowed to circumvent their Union and hire from outside. Picture this... Today you are hired and are pilot #1 on the Swoop list. Months from now a CIRB ruling comes down in ALPAs favour and WJ must amalgamate the pilot lists. So... You go from Captain #1 to pilot #2500 and are now below the lowest FO on the Dash-8 at Encore.
ALPA hiring ban - For those of you who aren't aware, ALPA has issued an international hiring ban against Swoop as they are arguing that it is WestJet's attempt to circumvent the Union and cut labour costs. What this means is that ALPA is asking airlines & their unions to refuse to hire any pilot that has previously worked for Swoop.
I fully acknowledge that Unions don't hire pilots, companies do so this ban is more symbolic than anything. But... The reality is that breaking this ban is thumbing your nose at ALPA and at pilot solidarity in general - not just in Canada but worldwide. While companies may do the hiring, it is pilots that generally make up the majority of the interview panel as well as the training departments of these airlines. Do you really think this hiring ban is going to be entirely overlooked come interview time? Would you bet your career on it?
So what is your best-case scenario at Swoop?
You get hired, get a fairly quick upgrade, and move on to somewhere else before you top out at Step 3 pay? Well, you better hope you make it through the AC interview first time around because WJ is no longer an option for you. Did I mention that the Air Canada Pilots Association has issued a letter of support in regards to the hiring ban at Swoop?
The reality of WestJet - Even if there was flow-through from Swoop, WJ is not the same as it was a decade ago. 10-15 years ago WJ was the best airline job in Canada - hands down. Today, I would argue it is the worst airline job in terms of career progression, morale, and labour relations. If you were to get hired today at WestJet, you are likely looking at 5 years plus at Encore. Then you get to move to the right seat of the Jet in whichever base happens to be available for you and then move to that base - at your own expense all while taking a pay cut so you can start back at Year 1 FO pay. Then you can rot away in the right seat for about a decade or so before you are offered an upgrade, again, in whichever base happens to be available and you can once again move at your own expense across the country to start again at Year 1 Captain pay. So... in today's environment of global expansion and pilot shortages if you went to WJ - you can expect to put in a whopping 27 years with the company before you ever see the top pay scale as a captain. Depressed yet? A friend on the top WJ captain scale recently showed me a copy of his first pay stub of 2018. After taxes, ESP deductions, etc. it was a whopping $2100. So after putting in a 27 year career you can look forward to pulling in a little over 2 grand per pay cheque. By the way... These numbers are all based on WestJet BEFORE Swoop takes flight. After Swoop you can probably expect Flow, Hiring and Upgrades at WJ to slow to a trickle so you can likely double those expected upgrade times. As far as the $2100 pay cheque ... Good luck ever negotiating any kind of pay raise in the future once you have an airline in house flying the same airplanes for less money. Dont expect wages to improve.
In today's aviation world where we are just on the very cusp of a worldwide pilot shortage why would anyone in their right mind even consider such a career-limiting move? Let's face it - no one's career goal is to fly a jam-packed 737 painted pink for an Ultra-Low-Cost Airline with minimal benefits and for 40% less than the going rate. If you are even considering this as a stepping-stone to land you that next great job I would urge you to walk down the street to Sunwing, Flair, or any other of the multitude of airline jobs offering comparable positions for equal or better pay.
Air Canada is growing rapidly and experiencing unprecedented retirements - hiring hundreds of pilots per year for the forseable future. They have a long track record of hiring pilots without jet experience. Great benefits, new airplanes, pension, best pay in Canada, quick upgrades, and best of all... Years of Service -based pay meaning that when you upgrade after 5 years you will move directly over the Year 5 captain pay unlike WJ where you will start at Step 1 and have to work your way up. This equates to millions of dollars in total career earnings.
Do you really want to work for an airline that has such lack of respect for its employees that it's attempting to circumvent them entirely by subcontracting their jobs out for 40% less. Trust me... You do not.