Originally Posted by
Ramjet555
Jet Jockey,
Unfortunately, you have conflated Norlinor with an Operator in Montreal.
I got my information from a Norlinor pilot at a time and location I will not name but, I basically go to almost every place they go to in Canada.
I'm also speaking from personal experience and that of other Canadian pilots.
While there may be a few Anglophones flying with Norlin or, these pilots also are Fluent in French, that is, they could impress as speaking with a Montreal accent.
I have no doubt that some of their Captains speak English only, but got hired because Norlinor could not find any Qualified 737 Captains who were bilingual in French. Not too many of their new hires will be qualified 737 Captains who can get a job anywhere in the world. This topic is about FO's getting hired and trained in a 737 at Norlinor.
Its very much a family run business, its "old school" and that "old school" mandates hiring Francophone first, bi-lingual second, and an almost impossible Anglophone only a very distant and next to impossible third.
Just read their ads that specifically state French is required. They have limited themselves to a very small of the pilot pool who
will be offered jobs in a flash at Encore, Westjet etc.
Sooner or latter, when resignations start arriving every day for the above airlines, who will also grab the bi-lingual pilots, they might reconsider that policy, which at present, appears unlikely to change.
Its the same with ATC in Montreal, where you see Anglophones who are bi-lingual, they grew up with both languages, many speak English with a French accent when English is their first ltianguage, consciously or subconsciously,
Then you conflate "your Montreal company" that you claim hires Anglophones without mentioning that they are bilingual or can speak , read and write in French.
Anyone educated in Ontario schools gets some basic french, and many are at least conversational enough to get a job flying in Quebec, anyone who did not get an education in Frelnch is unlikely to have an ability in French or get a job in Quebec period, let alone in the politics of Quebec Aviation.
The discrimination in Quebec against Anglophone non french speaking pilots is sickening.
Take ATC. "ABC, you have bad radio" is the standard reply at St. Hubert to an Anglophone in English. It's not so bad if you have a very difficult to understand Chinese or Arabic accent that make up most of the students there.
You "conflated" other operators apparently to support Norlinor who deserve some negative publicity for their blatant refusal to hire those who do not speak french.
There are several other companies, who don't want to be named who quietly hire Anglophones mainly because they fly to the USA a lot and their clients do not have the political power to effect revenge or dictate who they can hire as pilots.
At one airport recently, Norlinor and a PC12 from Montreal was there and the PC12 was an Anglophone but was bi-lingual. He stated again, that their company considers Anglophones but, at the end of the day, it saves a lot of political problems by having at least, bi-lingual pilots.
Times are changing in flight schools, many in Quebec still will not have an anglophone unless bi-lingual. Now with a shortage, you now start to see, "will consider a highly qualified instructor who does not speak French"
The Quebec Charter companies have been constantly lowering ltheir requirements to the point that they are hiring with bare IFR CPL as long as they are Francophones or at least, bi-lingual in French and English.
Now lets see if anyone posts who is a uni-lingual Anglophone FO on a 737 at Norlinor. I don't expect any replies.
Ramjet
I don't know what the problem is and I'm not going turn this into a pissing contest...
Nolinor as hired and will continue to hire Anglophones but yes they prefer bi lingual pilots that are fluent in both French and English.
Again knowing the gentleman that left Nolinor for a corporate gig in CYWG, I can assure you that he knew of several pilots on the B737 (captains and F/Os) that were unilingual Anglophones.
Being a Montreal based company, I understand why they would want pilots that speak French because of their main customers being French speaking.
Anyway that's all I'm going to say about Nolinor.
As for my company, Execaire which manages aircrafts throughout Canada and in Africa, I can assure you that we hire Anglophones and in fact in my group we used to have two unilingual anglos, (one left for a gig in Asia), the other is still with us and we fly for a Montreal based multi national corporation who's principals are mainly Francophones.