What's the latest news at Solenta?

[Canadian John]

What's the latest word on Solenta at the moment? Have they won their court case against SAX? Also how are things going with Fastjet? Also I heard that Air-tec have started OGP operations toe to toe against Solenta at one of their major bases in North Africa. Apparently some P1s have already been contacted to see if they would be interested in moving across. I also heard that quite a few crew have left, to move to companies like SAS Mali, Kingair Services, NAC.

I see they also placed a job advert recently for a new Director of Flight Ops on their facebook page.

Are they on the ropes?

[maxrated]

I doubt Solenta would be on the ropes in any significant way, the money owed to Solenta in dollar terms is not enough to threaten a company of their size. Although the amount in ZAR is substantial.

Air Tec, who used to be one of Solenta's sub contractors, seems to now be contracting for Tassili Airlines in North Africa, Tassili have always had their own big clients and I doubt they are a threat to Solenta's established North Africa contracts.

I know Solenta has lost crew to the Far East, I cannot imagine any of those guys leaving Solenta OGP project for SAS Mali unless SAS has upped their salaries massively and recently.

I know some of the SAS guys have left for Air Tec though....hopefully the competition for OGP qualified crew will force the operators to up the salaries of pilots on these contracts.

The contract company's should have 'crew retention' as one of their focus policies going forward given the increasing competition for OGP qualified crew.

Hopefully those policies will put something extra in the pockets of the guys and girls as well. Although it's not only/necessarily about salary, company's can do other things to hold onto crew, Bussiness class flights to project and company pension funds as well as better or more stable rotations would be things that would contribute to keeping crew happy, and therefore not looking elsewhere.

[highidle]

Maxrated you make some very good points.

-Business class tickets? Highly doubt it. Wasn't that one of the excuses Rossair management used when they folded?

-With regards to crew retention, it really depends how switched on the management is, and how serious they are about retaining their OGP crews. With the market as open as it is both within SA and the rest of the world, I think it's becoming harder and harder to secure crew that in many cases have already been flying for close to a decade on 19 seater turbo props.

-Stricter rotations (which is coincidentally what the clients actually request), and better remuneration is really the only way to realistically secure these large OGP contracts that the likes of Solenta have.

It's going to be an interesting few months going forward for them. The market is more open than ever. The guys still flying turboprops with ogp time are becoming few and far between. My personal opinion is if you're not being remunerated accordingly now would be the time to move on. There's plenty gigs here in the UAE and in the east. The market won't be open forever. Act now😉

[Canadian John]

I have a CV in there, and someone has told me that the director of flights ops, and chief pilot have resigned. I have been offered an interview with them and also NAC, also SAS Mali. Can someone working there please give some insight into the working conditions? It's a long way from Vancouver to fly there for an interview and then find out its as bad as the Canucks 98 season.

[Algerianmahmoud]

yes, solenta is with air express, i see in hassi messaoud. they have many airplanes. i think i see 11 when i land there two days ago from tlemchen. my friend who works in ops says solenta is needing pilots, but theey dont want algerians.

[Cenrifugel]

Honestly Solenta is a South African company flying South African registered aircraft, with so many qualified unemployed South African pilots why should they hire Algerians.

[Whenwe]

director of flights ops, and chief pilot have resigned

Yes, but only their positions, still with Solenta but as most pilots, they prefer to have an aircraft strapped to their backsides rather than drive a desk.

Perfectly normal.

[Algerianmahmoud]

Honestly Solenta is a South African company flying South African registered aircraft, with so many qualified unemployed South African pilots why should they hire Algerians.

Algerian was in solenta before. There is algerian female now work for solenta on 1900 but i dont see her for long time. Salary is good for Algeria, so why not hire more Algerian..?

[Canadian John]

I've had some interesting PM's sent to me and have decided to pass on pursuing Solenta. Anyone know of any other turboprop OGP companies offering 4/4 or 5/5 or 6/6 days gigs? Heard Air-Tec just took 3 Let crew back from Solenta, and are offering some great packages. Not typed on the Let, but perhaps it's an option?

[afxdisable]

A close mate of mine used to work for them for many years. He decided to leave when the current (now departing) director of flight operations came on board. Apparently a lot of seasoned veterans did the same sort of thing. The fact that this individual is now departing could hopefully mean Solenta can turn things around, and regain the crews confidence one again. Canadian John, I wouldn't be so quick to discount Solenta, they may be going through a rough patch, but now that the dead wood has been trimmed, they could end up back at the top again.

[Canadian John]

Has anyone got more recent info about these guys? I've managed to find a gig a bit closer to home, but a good friend of mine is looking at applying to Solenta as a direct entry P1 on one of the OGP contracts. Have things with their management settled down? I'd love to hear from some current contract crew whom are in the field for them, how the conditions are like, and if it's a position that can be seen as a fairly long term option. cheers