Air Scandic Info???

[FridayNightPalma]

I've been offered a position as crew with Air Scandic based at Manchester. I know about the contract, pay, routes, etc, but was just wondering if anyone could tell me more about the company in general?

If you work for them yourself, or know someone that does, please drop me a line and help me decide!!!

[Silkman]

FNP
I know of a few crew who have flown for Scandic.The crews are good on the whole but the management seem to be less than reliable i.e. late rosters, frequent call outs due to the aircraft being knackered. In the winter not much happens but then you get hit with a week long trip flying for Air France for example so you can't plan ahead too much. I believe they've got an aircraft flying out of Beirut at the moment for a month. Lovely place to be...not. For this summer one aircraft is based at Newcastle and one at MAN with an Icelandair 757 at the weekends from MAN but presume that is crewed with Icemaidens. Have you tried Monarch as i think they are still recruiting.

[Flygor]

Friday Night Palma

sounds like what you are already used to- ha ha!!!
Seriously good luck whatever you choose
your old mate
Flygor

[FridayNightPalma]

Well thanx for that, but I'm not quite desperate enough to try Monarch yet! If you can be any more specific about Scandic let me know, I know that the money is v. good. Can you explain the Air France thing in a bit more detail?

Flygor - miss you! XXX

[Silkman]

FNP
In the summer Scandic tend to fly mainly at the weekends and during the winter they only had one flight on a Sunday every fortnight, therefore their aircraft are sitting around doing not a lot apart from picking up sub charters.Air France are regularly on strike so the aircraft go down to CDG or ORY quite a bit.Also do quite a bit of work for Brits from MAN and LGW. The A300's are ex Finnair, hence the tie up with them but they're knocking on a bit and havent been terribly reliable but seem to go to Helsinki for maintenance quite regularly.Most of the people i know who have flown for them said the crew were good and had fun for a season but they then moved on to the Air 2bobs,Monarchs,Brits etc as the pennies dried up during the winter.Hope this helps a bit !

[bmedcabinlad]

Saw the Scandic a/c in beirut this week. Not sure if Silkman has been to BEY recently but its actually a pretty fab place to visit. One of the (now) safest places in the Middle East, fab weather, great skiing, happening clubs and nightlife and good shopping. Thats my opinion....

[Silkman]

bmedcabinlad
No, not been to BEY for a good few years.Glad to hear it's improved.Send my regards to F.O. Fruitie(red hair,always laughing !)

[SPICEBOY]

Agree with BMedCabinLad,BEY is so much better than it used to be.Still a few craters in the apron but that makes you feel at home!
Don't do these very often but a change is as good as a rest,even if it is only for 11 hrs.

Other crews should give it some consideration as a short-break city.I'm sure you'll be suprised.

------------------
Once more onto the beach dear friends!

[peapod]

Being an ex scandic cabin crew member I thought i would tell you what it is realy like.
Don't believe what they tell u at interview as it does not happen like that. Your life style will be unsettled, you get no weekends off during the summer, if you go sick the chairman sacks you and when they run short of crew they give you the job back. They amend rosters to suit them and not the crew member.I have moved over to another charter airline and find it much better, this all my sound bitter but its the truth, if you can get another job then do so. They make you work when out of hours as the flight deck are all finns and they will work and work till they drop. They do mess you around alot and the pay can sometimes be late. Since flying for the new airline i am with i have since found out that the owners are not the best people to work for they have been in some kind of trouble someway or another (do your homework on this). They swap days off around so you cannot plan anything. To sum it all up think before you join them, I would put people off this company because its run by people who do not have any idea.

I now work for another charter airline in Manchester and they are still recruiting so come on board with us and leave the cowboys alone.

[FridayNightPalma]

Peapod, Thanx a lot, only wanted someone to confirm what I already suspected. I do have another job with another airline @ MAN starting in the next few weeks, so at least I have something to fall back on. Maybe it's the same one you work for?
Give me a clue and I'll let you know...

[dogsbollocks]

watch this mob very strong rumour if they will even op in the uk this summer under there own right, understand some problem with Caa granting own c of a, due finances

[peapod]

Fridaynightpalma, I see you have your head screwed on. JMC is where I am. Was out with a few of the staff at the weekend and they were saying that they have been messed around yet again with days off, and they do not have a proper roster at the moment, because what they call the fat controller keeps changing things around. As i have said you have no life working for this outfit and hope others will get the message before they sign the contract (not worth paper printed on). Dogsbollocks your coments are not true, from what I have been told they operate on Air Cordials AOC ( But this is still owned by Scandic in a fashion). Scandic do not have their own because the CAA do not like the present chairman and from rumours both parties have been in some kind of trouble in the past. Hope this puts things right and maybe present or ex employees may want to add any further comments to this. I'm afraid its all true no lies here and if you speak to any present crew member they will confirm this. Crew training well I will not even attempt to touch on this, just ask others!!

Good luck what ever you do and anyone else.

[Silkman]

FNP,Pea Pod & Dogs Bollocks
Pea Pod is quite right.Scandic operate under Air Cordial's AOC, which you may or may not know is a paper airline.The fat controller has something to do with it but nobody really seems to know.Everything seems to be done on the cheap and in my personal opinion the airline is 10 years behind everyone else.DB, yes i have heard a similar rumour as to the company's financial status. It would'nt suprise me one bit. Pea Pod, is it true the fat controller was involved with Air Ops ? Look what happened to them...
FNP, ( I don't mean to sound pompous here, but...)if you've got the JMC option, take it.
although i hate that uniform !

[Silkman]

FNP
Sorry, just re read you're post. Don't know if it is JMC but good luck and take it anyway !

[dogsbollocks]

Peapod and silkman

Air cordial are one and the same and a insult to air ops if you think the fat controller was involved with them, he is in a league of his own

[peapod]

Silkman you are correct. Just been having a chat with one off the crew. The crew training is a mess.

Anyone who reads this forum PLEASE take another job their are still a few around, if you go to this outfit you will be treated like s....

Cowboys come to mind here. Stay clear. Have been promised some more info on this my contact is trying to find out more and I will post it for you all to read.

[This message has been edited by PPRuNe Towers (edited 12 March 2001).]

[NORDIC]

Why do so many people get at the fat controller? Is he the same person I am thinking of? He seems OK to me. Was he involved in looking after NORDIC in 1997? What exactly is the pay like now at Scandic for Cabin Crew? I must say, one purser who is going onto the 757 is a very nice young lady who I remember from a few years ago. Is it really that bad there? I would be interested to be able to email someone who has worked for SCY in the last year if possible to ask a few more questions.

Cheers,

NORDIC :)

[FridayNightPalma]

Hey all, thanx v v much for all of your info - your help has probably stopped me making a HUGE mistake. JMC, well, as fetching as the uniform is (!) I'm below their minimum height so Air2000 it is for me as of next week. Should be ok, worked for Britannia for 2 years @ BHX think they operate in pretty much the same way (legally, at least!!)

Take it easy, FNP XxX

[Silkman]

FNP
Glad to see it's worked out for you.
Good luck and all the very best at Air2Bob !

[capt pinhead]

Heard thru the grape vine that some Scandic crew are about to walk. Too many cheifs and not enough indians.

[OC41]

It is also said that the punters coming out of Beruit ( to Jeddah for Haj )were better than the average UK IT Charter punters.
So, even more appealing....

[ex cabin crew]

Are they really that bad? Has anyone got any other horror stories about Scandic.

[NORDIC]

ive just accepted a job with scandic, must say that all of the people i have met from the company are really down to earth people and the training seems to be very structured. the pay is the best of any charter airline at my base and the rosta appears to be good also. ive got no complaints. it seems to b a company where everyone knows everyone and they all want to make this summer a success. if u dont try u dont know, and as for operating out of legal constraints, I really don't think that is possible in their situation.....they are operating a full programme on behalf of tour operators who are full ATOL licenced etc, and are fully JAROPS compliant as they would definately have to be. Too many people give a bad impression of this company, but that is ok....if they want to work for a company who know their staff as a number on a computer, and whos closest contact socially is a party at christmas...then Scandic is not a company for them. Go elsewhere. If you want a company who knows you personally, and who has a healthy social life with it, come on board!

Cheers

NORDIC :)

[swizzle stick]

Nordic
You make me laugh. Firstly open your eyes you have seen what has been written about this company, and from the crew who I have spoken to beg to differ from what you say. Your information is wrong - tour operators do not need to comply with JAROPS, so you need to do some homework there. They issue you a roster and then when things go wrong or they need extra crew they will then fiddle your roster to make it legal. Well the training is a joke. I think either you are someone fishing for info who has contacts with this outfit, or you are rwally taken in by such crap you have been fed. Wake up and smell the coffee.

[GoodVibes]

Greetings! http://www.pprune.org/ubb/NonCGI/cool.gif
Just returned from BEY after 4 weeks doing Hadj to JED and back. Not a bad place to be nowadays and the hotel with 30+ cabin crew was a bliss. Not many many bad apples there.

FNP has made her mind up, but to Silkman:
The reason for HEL maintenance flights apprx. every 6-8 weeks is that C-checks are performed by Finnair there.
All the F/Os (except one) are British by the way and the technical despatch figure for the season 2000 was 98.8% (by Airbus statistics) Two years at SCY and only two cx due tech in 1,100 hrs flying time.(lucky? maybe) Ground handling problems, don't even get me started there.

Just clarifying couple of things here and yes, we have a full summer schedule for this summer, like we've had for the last three summers meaning two flights per a/c everyday. Wintertime is ad hocs and s/bs as you said, but this gives normally 5-7 days off in a row.

For this summer the Fatbuses stay both in MAN, NCL gets 757 as does MAN.

Cabin crew is fab and most of them are a happy and enjoyable ( and very flexible) bunch.

Hope this helps. http://www.pprune.org/ubb/NonCGI/cool.gif http://www.pprune.org/ubb/NonCGI/cool.gif http://www.pprune.org/ubb/NonCGI/cool.gif

Knowledge is power.

GV

[FridayNightPalma]

Glad SCY is okay for some people, NORDIC seems to think I was slagging it off, but I was merely pointing out that I decided the lifestyle didn't suit me - it would be very boring if we all wanted to work for the same airline eh?

By the way, why do you think I'm a 'her'?
http://www.pprune.org/ubb/NonCGI/confused.gif

[NORDIC]

Goodvibes, thanks for the positive words about SCY, seems like you enjoy it...by the way, what experience did you have to get on the A300 as an f/o? What was the way in?

FridayNightPalma - good on you for getting in with the new job, I did'nt think you were slagging SCY off, just wanted some positive views also. Hope all goes well for you in your new job, and that you don't end up doing every Fridaynightpalma over the summer!

Thanks guys

Cheers

NORDIC :)

[GoodVibes]

FNP: My apologies, just stereotypical male chauvinism, I guess. Goodluck with your choice.

NORDIC: positive words...hmmh... well, pessimism and slagging off never gets you anywhere in life.(Dreams, Dreams...) Thanks anyway. My experience for the Fatbus was ~3,300 hrs total with 2,300 T-Prop in varied operations, no previous jet.
It helps to know people as well.
Are you interested in moving up front?

Overall at SCY flying is good and crews get on with it like everywhere else, management, well...


Knowledge is powerrrrrr... http://www.pprune.org/ubb/NonCGI/cool.gif http://www.pprune.org/ubb/NonCGI/cool.gif

GV

[Doctor Cruces]

Was involved with them Summer 99 when they leased our L1011. Cabin crew a bunch of grand boys )generally)and girls butdealing with the boss was difficult and often plain unpleasant.

Understand they hire for summer and fire for winter, at least thats what they did when we were there.

Doc C

[This message has been edited by Doctor Cruces (edited 21 March 2001).]

[MinimumRest]

Hear these cowboys have now had their C of A snatched away by the CAA due to 'insufficient quality of safety equipment'and have had to cancel an F/O's initial course.

Surprise surprise eh?