Originally Posted by j_fleish
All you guys have failed to mention the opportunities that Sunwing offers their current Canadian employees right now with them buying the US Vacation company Vacation Express. This Aircrafts are C-reg aircrafts operating out of the US cities of Atlanta, Cincinatti and Memphis (which just got extended to fly next summer as well till October 2013) giving Canadian pilots a chance to provide the states with pilots and I do say Canadian pilots because this is a summer operation and no foreign workers are flying for Sunwing then. I think with them purchasing vacation express it will give Sunwing the opportunity to buy and train more pilots in the future once Vacation Express expands the cities offering Sunwing flights. Once this Happens I can see Sunwing acquiring more aircrafts to use in Canada for the winter and the States for the summer. But for now until this happens I think its best to just wait it out and not try to put the jobs at jeopardy by forcing the airline to strictly wet lease
Yes that is positive, for the time it will last. Expect that to be temporary though. It's a fifth freedom charter. These are never allowed for very long, unless you have an aircraft no other local can provide (like an Antonov 124). It will go on until a US airline opposes it on the basis that it has aircraft that can do the same flights, and then the charterer will be forced to use a US airline (or Sunwing Vacations will buy one).
http://docketsinfo.dot.gov/reports/u...2012-05-04.pdf
On the positive side, I also took note that Sunwing seems to have taken step to hire some temporary pilots next winter without requiring a B-737NG type-rating as a pre-requisite. I also took note that Sunwing was going to upgrade a number of Canadian first officers to Captain position instead of leaving these guys in the right seat year after year, filling the left seat with European Captains every winter as has been the case.
All good things if they are all true and Sunwing keeps moving in that direction......