Nothing gives me greater pleasure (its only a phrase) to come on here and see all the people who more than likely don't work for Focus... but who have friends at Focus... and they seem to know all the ins and outs of this airline. I guess if we can't complain about our own airline, we can complain about someone elses.
That said... when I interviewed and WAS HIRED at Focus... all the pay issues were fully disclosed. There was no hidden information about how we would be paid. Everyone was told the bid period for each month was 19 days, 38 days for the two month bid period. 60 hours a month for a total of 120 hours for the two month bid period. Anything over 38 days in two months or 120 hours in two months was considered overtime. Now here is the funny part... very few crew members here get over 60 hours a month or 120 hours in the two month bid period. Very few. I know for a fact I haven't come close to 120 hours in two months. Instructors, well, they may or may not. In the very beginning, there were hours to be had by those FEW that were qualified to fly the planes. As we got more crew members out there qualified, the hours per month came down. Now, getting over 120 hours in two months is almost unheard of. Even if we did use actual "block to block" time, we aren't getting close to the 120 hour mark. We do much better by being out over 38 days if we want overtime. And that sometimes happens because we don't really have the best in crew sheduling.
I can't say I blame anyone that wants to leave over the pay issues here. The pay here is better than a lot of airlines out there. We almost mirror what Atlas crews are paid. I started here at $2.00 more an hour that I would have made after 7 years at Omni, had I stayed there... what does that say? And I'll get a $9.00 a hour raise soon. At most, from what I understand about our new Chief Pilot, he doesn't care for the two month bid period and would like to see it go to a monthly program. Will that happen, depends, on whether he can convience Mr. McElroy who likes the two month program.
I got friends here who also aren't happy and they are looking for jobs elsewhere. That's their business. All of them are doing it for different reasons... pay isn't always the issue here. Sometimes it's an equipment issue. Anytime someone can get hired by a "major" airline they should go for it. I would if "major" airlines hired FEs. The quality of life isn't that bad here. We stay in pretty nice hotels... we get things paid for by the company that other airline crews wish they could get... we have good equipment considering its older stuff... things are slowly (sometimes too slow though) coming together and within a few years, this may be a pretty darn good place to work. We even hired five Polar guys during their strike... they didn't stay after the strike, but we must have looked pretty good to some people out there.
So give Focus a break. Like it has been said here several times, this is new airline with only 6 or so months under their belt. It takes time to get the bugs worked out but no matter how much time it takes, not everyone will be happy here. For some, they won't be happy anywhere they go, they just want to work someplace and talk about how great it would be to work someplace else. We all have met that person sometime in our flying career.
I'm here for the long haul, as most Flight Engineers are. I'm making the best of what this company has to offer and hopefully will offer in the future.
Keep the dirty side facing the ground... FACFE
Oh, I talked to some Polar guys in Almaty, they said they are looking forward to becoming the newest airline purchased by Focus Air
(for those of you that didn't get it... that was a joke).