Two sides the coin
I thought I would just give my 2 cents worth to this debate. I am not here to try to say that what everyone is posting is incorrect, as I truly do not know all circumstances or details on all of problems that have arisen.
I want to make this very clear, the following is totally unsolicited by Mike or Josh but I believe there needs to be some balance to the forum.
Fellow pilots my name is Wayne Gillis and I am an Avionco pilot.
I took early retirement from a major airline, and after 29 years decided that I still loved to fly just didn’t like who I flew for. So decided to give contract flying a try, I read the forums at the time (certainly not as many postings as now) and after looking around decided to give Avionco a try. A friend of mine was already working for them and after talking to him I was hired Jan/07.
Contract #1 was in India as the 1st of 2 expat pilot into the Indus airline project. I’ve been to India twice on assignment, and have to say that the India DGCA is the Indian airline industry’s worst enemy. What should take 2 weeks anywhere else takes 3 months, if at all.
I never flew on this assignment until the last week , during the 2 months prior to this I was paid on time with no hassles. At the end of the third month the two Aircraft were seized due to none payment of leases. The contract ended I was fully paid by Avionco. The interesting part of this is the company has never paid Avionco and to this day. I know this for a fact!
Contact# 2 Gabon, Africa first pilots in , 3 month contract and we were paid late once, the last month (interestingly enough Avionco wasn’t paid by the Gabon Airline until the end of the 3rd month). But Avionco still paid us on time the first two months they were late the last month a couple of days.
Contract #3 India once again first of two pilots into the project and after 7 months we were only paid late once by 2 days again due to none payment by the airline. I was there for nearly 7 months.
I am now into contract #4 so far so good.
So for some of you that were waiting for contracts in India I can tell you that Avionco isn’t the problem it is the Indian Government and Indian culture. As I said in the beginning what takes 2 weeks in most other countries takes forever there if it happens at all. Promises are made perhaps to people based on bad information from the different airlines. Sometime the airlines actually are lying
So to finish this up in almost 17 months of work I’ve been paid late 3 times.
I’m note saying that it is a perfect world, because it is not.
But I truly believe that there are two sides to every story , and this is mine.
Wayne