Heston Airlines

[davidjohnson6]

Heston Airlines is a new proposed ACMI carrier in Lithuania, run by the former Chief Commercial Officer of GetJet, another Lithuanian ACMI

It would be easy to label this as a company run by somebody who doesn't know what else to do with their career, but I'm wondering what a new ACMI airline can do post Covid that other ACMI competitors cannot do. Is there really much of an advantage in being a new company with few liabilities anf all the inherent risk around being a startup compared to being an existing company known to other airline customers ? The fact that so many A320 / B737 aircraft are grounded makes me think demand for ACMI will be weak for a long time

[Albert Hall]

I couldn't help but wonder if they might have a Captain called Charlton just to fully authenticate the brand...

[Red Four]

I always try to avoid Heston Services where I possibly can, due to the blumenthal-backs in the food queue.:)

[pax britanica]

Perhaps they just have a sense of history with heston being Londons first proper airport and the site of the famous 'Peace for our time' pronouncement by Neville Chamberlain

[Fairdealfrank]

I couldn't help but wonder if they might have a Captain called Charlton just to fully authenticate the brand...

Funnily enough there is a village called Charlton down the road from Heston.......

[macdo]

Might be a smart move. Word within the industry is that we may see a lot more ACMI use as the recovery from covid begins. Personally, I wouldn't want to put a timescale on that just yet.

[section 41]

Hesston airlines linked to Heston MRO. Be very careful with any dealings with this business and in particular the owners.

[Chrphil]

Could you please elaborate to the degree that you could that is ? Thanks.

[CaptainSea]

Good morning
Somebody know how is the psychometric and cognitive tests for Heston Airlines?
what kind of tests they have?
i have this test to do and I would like to practice .
thanks

[CabinCrewe]

Blumenthal ?

[SWBKCB]

Blumenthal ?

A more positive response might be to suggest that the OP is more likely to get a response in the 'Terms and Endearment' Forum

https://www.pprune.org/terms-endearment-38/

[ENRI80]

Good morning
Somebody know how is the psychometric and cognitive tests for Heston Airlines?
what kind of tests they have?
i have this test to do and I would like to practice .
thanks
Did you find out the kind of psychometric and cognitive tests they use?
many thanks

[Jediminas]

Heston Airline, the very definition of the Dunning Kruger effect at its core. Not an airline:rather an entertainment from a jester!
Self entitlement , faking credentials or purchasing cheap ratings, upgrades and instructorships on amazon is usually never enough to belong to the business.
Does the “ boss “ know that the moonies are in the office and that goons , lunatics inbreeds and mongrels have taken over the asylum? No.. I guess not..and the best is yet to come. Enjoy the circus!

[frodothehobbit]

Loads of contractual promises non maintained and lost contracts for inability of fulfilling client requirements and authorities certifications.
Salaries and conditions inequality among fleets and individuals .
Fligth time limitations and duty adherence are not respected .
It is a a pseudo company, made of a conglomerate scum of scoundrels and bumpkins, of two specific ethnical group amidst the “chosen locals”. Very low hours and experience everywhere from top management to the last cabin crew.
Fake credentials, self entitlement , ignorance and loads of arrogance with lack of education.
Trying to make things work taking shortcuts with authorities and clients ,with very marginal safety record. Youngsters in the office with zero experience and qualifications in all departments . A circus of incompetence and ineptitude.
With the “tall guy on top”, loads of young lousy self appointed captains coming from “ nowhere “ with upgrade course made in one week and bought off type ratings and certifications on Amazon.
Safety department is a pathetic parody of servilism . Management non existent and delegated to a mob of preposterous and prepotent group of kids.
avoid if you can, at allo cost.

[TwinAisle]

Be fun if they fly to Greece or Cyprus. Heston sounds like the Greek word meaning to sh*t on someone.... I kid you not.

Down here, Charlton Heston is credited as Charlton Easton in his movies.

TA

[Jungfrau]

Getting ready to leave . Been here shortly but non even shortly enough: an accident waiting to happen in my opinion. No wonder the good or experienced people leave or are forced to leave. “Never place someone better then you in your organisation “.
Scoundrels and mongrels : that is my definition of the Heston’s “ gotha”. Don’t know who is worse: the self entitled giraffe whose nose is so deep in the COO ass that is not even brown anymore? a @true “gentleman” @ recoiling from leaps and bounces in potatoes nation, landed on a chair..or may be the married weasel and cabin crew shagger who likes so much to use the megaphone to communicate his disappointment to ground staff and sneakly changes the roster to always be in charge? He Should learn how to fly first ….Or May be the “red bull pilot of the poor people” , spy of the management, who has hard time controlling his temper in normal ops with the crew , with the same capacity to be in charge of a toddler.? Should learn how to read first and change his bib and diaper, poor little thing… Or the salted yes men , “commanders wannabe” who never commanded anything in their life, but a doctored logbook ? They should take seriously into consideration changing career path to greengrocery sale.. or “the best”: the chubby, bearded big boss , the know-it-all expert whom no one has ever actually met in any existing establishment doing something relevant or even flying.. a racist : stating “ in Germany we hire some nationalities because they are hard worker and don’t complain “.. dispensing directive, and regulations..what a sad display of ignorance, arrogance, emptiness and pool leadership…
the list is so long..
9000 euro a month they said.. until we have a contract.. 20/10 they said.. but i need you to be flexible.. minimum sectors line-training , but if you are a “potato eater “you don’t even need to know how how to fly: training is for the sons of a lesser god, not for the chosen breed…
good bye .. I am out of this ridiculous outfit.. you are warned: beware!

[Jacktheleon]

I read a lot of animosity up here in the thread. One wonders where is it all coming from.
Let’s just say that the “ best and brightest “ ideal has gone by the wayside long ago in Heston.
To be completely honest, historically almost no one in the Lithuanian airline acmi/charter operators, from Small planet onwards , ever got there on merit, least of all the newest kids in the block . Apple does not fall far from the tree.
It is safe to assume that every single hire pulled some strings or “ tongued some buttocks “.
That generally doesn’t matter, as long as some sort of substance and professionalism is preserved in the decadent process of appointing friends and elementary school snack buddies, in Airline key positions.
In Heston the situation is snowballing downhill at warp speed and unfortunately someone will get hurt and burned.
My advise to my fellow colleagues above is to keep your head down and your mouth shut, because the “little ****s “ are evil, raging and filled with vicious vengeance sentiments, as the recent history has proved. Just stay as long as it suits you with the lowest profile possible.
A ridiculous “code of conduct” exists in the airline while racism, gossiping, mobbing, bullying, discrimination of cultural background and sexual orientation freely co- exists with a healthy backstabbing habit among peers. All is just a pathetic facade.
It is never a fantastic workplace , one in which everyone smiles just to get the wage at the end of the month while waiting for a better opportunity. Sadly it is all true.
Cheers
jack

[bowlingmate]

I couldn’t agree more. Working with some of the people here , I have been astonished by the complete lack of any clue about operations.
The standard state in inputting pilots ( selected for being a connection with the “big Kahuna” ) is : if you could fog a mirror and you didn’t drool on the keyboard making the application , you are Heston prime material.
Some people I doubt they even successfully went trough middle school, given the cognitive level.
What is odd is that regardless the continuous shortcomings and failures and embarrassments, these dudes are promoted .. must be a requirement to be an idiot to step up the ladder in this amusing establishment.
I left after not even 3 months: found a much better job, less paid but in which you are not led by such incompetent nullities .

[Prisma]

Anyone kind enough to share this?

[Bran78]

[QUOTE=CaptainSea;11333370]Good morning
Somebody know how is the psychometric and cognitive tests for Heston Airlines?
what kind of tests they have?
i have this test to do and I would like to practice .
thanks[/QUOTE

Hello,
I read on the forum you were looking for about the Heston Airlines psychometric and cognitive tests, I’m looking for this too, I’m looking into it too, could you please tell me more about his tests if you’ve passed them, lot of thanks in advance🙏

[PilotLZ]

From all the multiple complaints about the working environment (apparently not just one or two individuals who didn't fit well but the majority of present and past employees sound disappointed), would you say that it's in any way different from other similar companies in the region? I.e. are Avion Express, Smartlynx or GetJet any better than what you're describing about Heston?

[bowlingmate]

It would appear they are now offering CCQs from 320 to 330 and first officer upgrades to attract and retain” talents”.
Odd management policy the one that seeks to hire low hours and low experienced pilot to fill in the gaps left from employees resigning .
The big kahuna must be running shorts of puppets, accepting the unacceptable just to climb the ladder .
Attempting the reach the apex of the fame or the fame and of an ape?

[bowlingmate]

To be honest psychometric here , is a mystery to me. It is systematic and thorough, all right . But If a pilot with 7000 hours total with dubious track record can become chief pilot just for being friend with Gedimias ( no other merit , credit ,value , title, qualification or achievement) , and can make all his minion-ettes friends crawl steps in the hen-house ladder ( short and full of guano ) , then probably what is measured in the test is your ability to gutter crawling .

[uberfly]

How is the situation in the company, any honest review positive or negative (not destructive one but constructive criticism)? Any expectation of high turn overs for the coming season?

[mumsilein49]

To be honest: I do see only negative comments about Heston. I do know quite a few pilots working there, mostly captains. All of them are highly experienced and have been working for reputed airlines previously ( Gulf Airlines, Easyjet, Air Berlin, LTU etc.) Most of them have been furloughed from their previous company due to Covid or bankruptcy. So why do they stay with Heston as they could easyly return to their previous employer or to different companies? Opportunities are plentiful for experienced pilots. And as far as I know the conditions at Heston are not bad at all, good salary and rosters similar to other companies. Could it be some kind of frustration is shown in other replies, for whatever reason I don`t know.

[RudderTrimZero]

So why do they stay with Heston as they could easyly return to their previous employer or to different companies?
Because most are tax dodgers and they like money not taxed at source. There.

[mumsilein49]

Because most are tax dodgers and they like money not taxed at source. There.

So you are living in the MEA. You must be a tax dodger then. And BTW, what is wrong with tax evasion. Thats what most multinational companies do.

[Big Tudor]

And BTW, what is wrong with tax evasion. Thats what most multinational companies do.

Tax evasion is illegal. Tax avoidance is a very different thing.

[uberfly]

It starts from the top. First of all, in such structures such companies does not pay 3 items that is suppose to be paid to the tax office.

1st- Income tax 2nd-Social Security Contributions 3rd-Health Related premiums. Employees of such companies mostly does not pay any of those neither. First of all companies make a lot of profit by doing this. Imagine a airlines paying legal pay to its pilots. Lets say, captain salary is about 9.000 Euros net p/m, to receive this net amount in your bank account cost to the airlines is approximately 16.000 Euros in western EU countries. This amount of 7.000 euros in between is pure profit for airlines and they are making it on your shoulders.

Of course ACMI salary of 9.000 for captain is in reality is gross amount, and we are still not realising how much money we are losing and how we are helping those ACMIs to make money,

As a result, ACMI company evading tax from its tax office, which is complete illegal. Second of all, they are not paying social security contribution which is breach of labor law and labor rights.

Pilot job cannot be contracting job, we cant work for more than 1 airline in reality. In anywhere around the world if you do contracting job you receive much more than directly employed person therefore you can make these contribution to the state by yourself.

[Giuff]

Because most are tax dodgers and they like money not taxed at source. There.

So you are living in the MEA. You must be a tax dodger then. And BTW, what is wrong with tax evasion. Thats what most multinational companies do.

In ME you dont pay taxes, period. Its their policy.
But you still pay taxes in your Country if you want to mantain some benefits there or keep your family there.
ACMI like this one is pure tax evasion.

[seventhreedriver]

Tax evasion is illegal. Tax avoidance is a very different thing.
It is tax evasion if you do it... As I see, many "startups" are/were "employing" contractors (eg RYR), but as they were growing, employment contracts were handed out. Once they grew to a noticeable size, these companies started to do "tax optimalization" so pilots could stop tax evasion....

(side note: taxes are needed, but in many countries in the EU this will amount to 50%+ deductions for income tax, social sec and the like. Once you have that money, VAT (=taxes) is around 20% - meaning that around 60% of your salary is taken as tax - not talking about the employer's contribution. I am not saying that tax evasion is the way to go, but working 12 days out of 20 just to pay the taxes is hardly fair either...)

[Madp1lot]

All those negative comments above have no grounds and come from ppl who either created an account for the sole purpose of those comments (they have no other comments anywhere in pprune), or left the company even before they started flying or so they say.. (April was a dead month still..).

Company isn't a shangri-la, and you have good colleagues and so-so colleagues (technically), though the great majority are good pilots. But one thing the company has is a good working environment, open culture, and 95% of the guys and girls, front or back, are just nice ppl to work with, and there is tolerance amongst piers, whatever their background. Lots of pilots with a respectful background, as well as Senior CC. A good bunch of them flew in Europe and Asia before. Thanks to COVID. Another good bunch come from Avion and Smartlynx (go figure).

Now, being a Lithuanian company, it is expected that most of the management positions are held by Lithuanians, as well as some key operational positions. If for naughting else, they've been in the company since the beginning.
Yes, there is politics play, JUST LIKE IN ANY OTHER COMPANY for ***** Sake... But it will only affect you, if you yourself decide to play that game and crawl that ladder.
If your goal is flying, you're golden.
Politics isn't my forte anyways.
The negative comments in previous posts are simply racist, to put it bluntly.

Relationship with the office is also OK. Open communication at all times. Very operational, functional, and no bul**** added.

Company is growing at a very respectful rate as well. 12 ac in 2 years of existence, 18 aircraft leased for 2024 operations ( A320. More if you count A330).
In 2 years got IOSA and pre approval on CAT3 ops (fully approved by end of summer after we all undergo OCC).
Contracts with clients are solid, some of them signed for 3 years starting 2023. Apparently clients are happy with our performance, specially compared with the competition, who couldn't keep up with their own goals. Just saying.

You can still choose bases of operation, thou not garanteed.
20/10 minimum, though it can go up to 30/15 by contract (specially when positioned out of europe), but the normal is maximum 22/11. If you ask to get the 20/10, crewing has no issues clipping the other days out. As in any other airline, we're also short on crew.
Aircrafts aren't new out of the factory, as in any other ACMI, but they are decent, and there's an effort to have decent maintenance actions from top management down.
Relaxed flying, OK pay, possibility to earn extra money in summer with extra duty, some time-off in winter, 20 extra days off in winter as well, 14 days of payed sick leave, work insurance (with medical), loss of licence insurance (100k top). Negotiating ID travel now.
Company is flying mostly for holidays flyers. That's like 7 to 9 days of flying per month, 70h. 10 more h if you're FO due to lack of FOs everywhere. 2 sectors only per day.
Hotels we stay in are decent enough, min 8.5 rating on Booking and similars.

Now. It IS an ACMI. There is no such thing as an employment contract, just like in ANY OTHER ACMI out there. Reason has to do with Industry risk. ACMIs take the other airlines risks away, and they can't take that risk themselves. Taxes are up to each individual and all pay is legal from the company side. If a specific person doesn't pay their taxes, that's their own responsibility, as it should be. All tax related information is provided by the company and the broker.
Despite this, the company does make an effort to treat crews with respect and decency, and we are treated as employees, not contractors.

Those are the rules of the game. Don't join if you don't like them. Easy.
My pay is all legal and I pay my own social security and income taxes.
Could the money be better? Yes!
Then again, I'm flying max 9 days a month, and have the prospect of spending 3 to 5 months at home with family... do your math.
At the end of the summer season new contract conditions will be offered. An improvement is expected.

Obviously, some guys will leave.
But the main reason will be due to either not coping with a commuting roster 20/10, or a dream job opens up again (home based, or back to ME or China or somewhere out there).

Assessment for pilots:
- 100 Q test, 90% technical, 10% ATPL
- Psycometrics, personality, etc. Nornal stuff.
- Panel interview (1 HR + 1 TRE)
- Psychologist interview
- Simulator assessment (LOE + PPC)
All done online except for the simulator.

ACMI is an interesting business to say the least.

Safe landings, and remember to flare once in a while.

[mumsilein49]

All those negative comments above have no grounds and come from ppl who either created an account for the sole purpose of those comments (they have no other comments anywhere in pprune), or left the company even before they started flying or so they say.. (April was a dead month still..).

Company isn't a shangri-la, and you have good colleagues and so-so colleagues (technically), though the great majority are good pilots. But one thing the company has is a good working environment, open culture, and 95% of the guys and girls, front or back, are just nice ppl to work with, and there is tolerance amongst piers, whatever their background. Lots of pilots with a respectful background, as well as Senior CC. A good bunch of them flew in Europe and Asia before. Thanks to COVID. Another good bunch come from Avion and Smartlynx (go figure).

Now, being a Lithuanian company, it is expected that most of the management positions are held by Lithuanians, as well as some key operational positions. If for naughting else, they've been in the company since the beginning.
Yes, there is politics play, JUST LIKE IN ANY OTHER COMPANY for ***** Sake... But it will only affect you, if you yourself decide to play that game and crawl that ladder.
If your goal is flying, you're golden.
Politics isn't my forte anyways.
The negative comments in previous posts are simply racist, to put it bluntly.

Relationship with the office is also OK. Open communication at all times. Very operational, functional, and no bul**** added.

Company is growing at a very respectful rate as well. 12 ac in 2 years of existence, 18 aircraft leased for 2024 operations ( A320. More if you count A330).
In 2 years got IOSA and pre approval on CAT3 ops (fully approved by end of summer after we all undergo OCC).
Contracts with clients are solid, some of them signed for 3 years starting 2023. Apparently clients are happy with our performance, specially compared with the competition, who couldn't keep up with their own goals. Just saying.

You can still choose bases of operation, thou not garanteed.
20/10 minimum, though it can go up to 30/15 by contract (specially when positioned out of europe), but the normal is maximum 22/11. If you ask to get the 20/10, crewing has no issues clipping the other days out. As in any other airline, we're also short on crew.
Aircrafts aren't new out of the factory, as in any other ACMI, but they are decent, and there's an effort to have decent maintenance actions from top management down.
Relaxed flying, OK pay, possibility to earn extra money in summer with extra duty, some time-off in winter, 20 extra days off in winter as well, 14 days of payed sick leave, work insurance (with medical), loss of licence insurance (100k top). Negotiating ID travel now.
Company is flying mostly for holidays flyers. That's like 7 to 9 days of flying per month, 70h. 10 more h if you're FO due to lack of FOs everywhere. 2 sectors only per day.
Hotels we stay in are decent enough, min 8.5 rating on Booking and similars.

Now. It IS an ACMI. There is no such thing as an employment contract, just like in ANY OTHER ACMI out there. Reason has to do with Industry risk. ACMIs take the other airlines risks away, and they can't take that risk themselves. Taxes are up to each individual and all pay is legal from the company side. If a specific person doesn't pay their taxes, that's their own responsibility, as it should be. All tax related information is provided by the company and the broker.
Despite this, the company does make an effort to treat crews with respect and decency, and we are treated as employees, not contractors.

Those are the rules of the game. Don't join if you don't like them. Easy.
My pay is all legal and I pay my own social security and income taxes.
Could the money be better? Yes!
Then again, I'm flying max 9 days a month, and have the prospect of spending 3 to 5 months at home with family... do your math.
At the end of the summer season new contract conditions will be offered. An improvement is expected.

Obviously, some guys will leave.
But the main reason will be due to either not coping with a commuting roster 20/10, or a dream job opens up again (home based, or back to ME or China or somewhere out there).

Assessment for pilots:
- 100 Q test, 90% technical, 10% ATPL
- Psycometrics, personality, etc. Nornal stuff.
- Panel interview (1 HR + 1 TRE)
- Psychologist interview
- Simulator assessment (LOE + PPC)
All done online except for the simulator.

ACMI is an interesting business to say the least.

Safe landings, and remember to flare once in a while.
A very exhaustive and meaningful comment. Congratulation!

[WhatShortage]

A very exhaustive and meaningful comment. Congratulation!
Truth is hard to swallow isn't it?

Am with the competition and still agree with this guy as I have several friends there ( CAPT/FO/SCC/CC wide variety of opinions and all the same).

I could copy paste this guy's text as for Avion express.

[giord]

Now. It IS an ACMI. There is no such thing as an employment contract, just like in ANY OTHER ACMI out there. Reason has to do with Industry risk. ACMIs take the other airlines risks away, and they can't take that risk themselves. Taxes are up to each individual and all pay is legal from the company side. If a specific person doesn't pay their taxes, that's their own responsibility, as it should be. All tax related information is provided by the company and the broker.
Despite this, the company does make an effort to treat crews with respect and decency, and we are treated as employees, not contractors.



My bold quote.

Guys you should try to understand that a pilot is an employee not a business partner. Period. A pilot must have a direct employment contract and be paid as an employee so with tax retention at the source. Anything else is a business-to-business relationship which does not apply to pilots. If ACMI take risks by working for other airlines why should their “employees” get the downsides? If you pay a Cpt 10K come on we all know this fella won’t slash this salary into half to abide by the European taxation rules and will find “ideas”. Start paying 16-18-20K at least so people don’t have to worry about the tax man. All the people I know working at ACMIs own NOTHING; Cars, houses, etc.. all under the name of spouse, brothers, etc.. I won’t talk about where the Bank accounts are opened.

[latecoere240]

All those negative comments above have no grounds and come from ppl who either created an account for the sole purpose of those comments (they have no other comments anywhere in pprune), or left the company even before they started flying or so they say.. (April was a dead month still..).



Now. It IS an ACMI. There is no such thing as an employment contract, just like in ANY OTHER ACMI out there. Reason has to do with Industry risk. ACMIs take the other airlines risks away, and they can't take that risk themselves. Taxes are up to each individual and all pay is legal from the company side. If a specific person doesn't pay their taxes, that's their own responsibility, as it should be. All tax related information is provided by the company and the broker.
Despite this, the company does make an effort to treat crews with respect and decency, and we are treated as employees, not contractors.

ACMI is an interesting business to say the least.



Some ACMI provided direct employment contract ( as Privatair in the past) with proper conditions. All these Baltic mafia airlines are working the same way and these kind of contract is chosen for obvious reasons as reducing cost and avoid paying Social contributions. We all know, staff is one of the top cost center after fuel. With a fee of 9000 euros/ month for Cpt is well too low. This should be the fee for a First officer and captain at least 15K during High season.
One of the main issue on these ACMI airlines you don't have home base. EU regulation is pretty clear on this that you have to pay social contributions in your home base country. Your positioning country is not your home base. If you are working on several bases ( different countries), it's your tax residentship country ( social welfare office) that determined where you should pay your contributions ( this included for freelancer/soletrader).
You are treated as an employee but your are not an employee. Your contract relationship is the most important. In good time you are an employee, when the downturn will come, you will be a contractor, simple as this... As long as you are aware of this, no surprise...
The main issue is the pilot himself/herself. The majority of them are playing tax evasion.
I personally settled down my sole trader company as a freelance pilot and paid my social contributions and tax in my residentship country.
The downturn of these contract, it's not stable and if you want to invest, buy your home/house, Banks are less entitled to give you a loan ( specially now with high interest rate) compared to permanent contract ( more stable). For those willing more stability ACMI is not the best choice.
For those who have everything and don't need and want to work part-time, live in the country where he/she wants ( In Europe at least) ACMI can be a good choice. This is the only advantage...
Personally, I enjoyed my time in some of them, but the worst one was smartlynx. Now working for a proper airline with proper contract, but if I wanted to carry on ACMI airline, Heston would have been on consideration.

[Klimax]

All it will take is one crash - and these companies are done as feeders for the majors. Hopefully Union will not miss the opportunity to expose these cheap ACMI´s with substandard CoS - that some pilots accept on their way up - or can´t get better. Yeah, not a popular comment, but that doesn´t mean it´s not right, live with it!

[latecoere240]

They follow-up.
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/latvian-aviation-union_wetleasing-airbaltic-finland-activity-7096090293690613760-jUXe?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

[rocky 3]

Heston Airlines is a new proposed ACMI carrier in Lithuania, run by the former Chief Commercial Officer of GetJet, another Lithuanian ACMI

It would be easy to label this as a company run by somebody who doesn't know what else to do with their career, but I'm wondering what a new ACMI airline can do post Covid that other ACMI competitors cannot do. Is there really much of an advantage in being a new company with few liabilities anf all the inherent risk around being a startup compared to being an existing company known to other airline customers ? The fact that so many A320 / B737 aircraft are grounded makes me think demand for ACMI will be weak for a long time
as for Heston, I would not recommend this place to anyone! The training Department is extremely poor. Fear culture, you should know it, it is online. No training support, lots of pressure is imposed to you from day 1. At the moment, the only project is flying from Tashkent to Istanbul and Dubai on a 30 days ON 15 days off roster.

[Madp1lot]

as for Heston, I would not recommend this place to anyone! The training Department is extremely poor. Fear culture, you should know it, it is online. No training support, lots of pressure is imposed to you from day 1. At the moment, the only project is flying from Tashkent to Istanbul and Dubai on a 30 days ON 15 days off roster.

This is a total lie...

Tashkent - Air Uzbek
Podgorica - Air Montenegro
Brno/Budapest - Smartwings
HAM/MUN - Marabu
DUS/HER - Condor

Company actively asks for reports to be made when there is a situation to report, and no "prosecution" is done.

You my friend, are a liar.

[PilotLZ]

Can anyone more clued-up on the subject share if there is any recruitment going on? Positions for both fleets are advertised via multiple sources every now and again, some while ago there was even an A330 CCQ offer for FOs.

[Trollbuster]

All those negative comments above have no grounds and come from ppl who either created an account for the sole purpose of those comments (they have no other comments anywhere in pprune), or left the company even before they started flying or so they say.. (April was a dead month still..).

I haven’t seen your signature at the bottom of your post, have I? :-)

Company isn't a shangri-la, and you have good colleagues and so-so colleagues (technically), though the great majority are good pilots. But one thing the company has is a good working environment, open culture, and 95% of the guys and girls, front or back, are just nice ppl to work with, and there is tolerance amongst piers, whatever their background. Lots of pilots with a respectful background, as well as Senior CC. A good bunch of them flew in Europe and Asia before. Thanks to COVID. Another good bunch come from Avion and Smartlynx (go figure).

you wish you were a Motel 6 buddy, don’t flatter yourself!
“good colleagues and good working environment with tolerance ”: interesting way to see it; after all , from your position everything shines and sparkles . It is the job of the clown to amuse, and you are doing a great job. Might I remind you of the racist you nurture in top management? Your former chief said in an open meeting he hireable certain nationality because the are not very bright, work hard and do not complain .go figure..


Now, being a Lithuanian company, it is expected that most of the management positions are held by Lithuanians, as well as some key operational positions. If for naughting else, they've been in the company since the beginning.
Yes, there is politics play, JUST LIKE IN ANY OTHER COMPANY for ***** Sake... But it will only affect you, if you yourself decide to play that game and crawl that ladder.
If your goal is flying, you're golden.
Politics isn't my forte anyways.
The negative comments in previous posts are simply racist, to put it bluntly.

Exhilarating !!! Hence you “expect “ management positions to be given away for nepotism, friendship, relationships and national belonging : the very definition of a meritocracy!! ;-)
The company management is a mob of nobodies coming from small planet and wizzair , and two particular nationalities with the exception of the chubby one, with the only merit of knowing how to kiss the boss behind.
your chief pilot( in small cases) has roughly 7k hours most of it on turboprop. your DFO and HT have been working only on small planet , and quite frankly with an unimpressive cv, and they are you best.. imagine..

Relationship with the office is also OK. Open communication at all times. Very operational, functional, and no bul**** added.

😂which office? Which communication? Which operational functions?


Company is growing at a very respectful rate as well. 12 ac in 2 years of existence, 18 aircraft leased for 2024 operations ( A320. More if you count A330).
In 2 years got IOSA and pre approval on CAT3 ops (fully approved by end of summer after we all undergo OCC).
Contracts with clients are solid, some of them signed for 3 years starting 2023. Apparently clients are happy with our performance, specially compared with the competition, who couldn't keep up with their own goals. Just saying.


wow.. this is such a load of bulky horse crap I had to open the window!!! Did you see the safety record and open findings you have with your authority? Oh.. you missed that.. sorry mate…

You can still choose bases of operation, thou not garanteed.
20/10 minimum, though it can go up to 30/15 by contract (specially when positioned out of europe), but the normal is maximum 22/11. If you ask to get the 20/10, crewing has no issues clipping the other days out. As in any other airline, we're also short on crew.
Aircrafts aren't new out of the factory, as in any other ACMI, but they are decent, and there's an effort to have decent maintenance actions from top management down.
Relaxed flying, OK pay, possibility to earn extra money in summer with extra duty, some time-off in winter, 20 extra days off in winter as well, 14 days of payed sick leave, work insurance (with medical), loss of licence insurance (100k top). Negotiating ID travel now.
Company is flying mostly for holidays flyers. That's like 7 to 9 days of flying per month, 70h. 10 more h if you're FO due to lack of FOs everywhere. 2 sectors only per day.
Hotels we stay in are decent enough, min 8.5 rating on Booking and similars.


Mate, you are a stand up comedian: even the brokers don’t know anymore which is your contract for the times you have changed it , from night to day in a blink.. you are ridiculous !

Hotel Rating on booking… medical and loss of licence insurance… new aircraft with decent maintenance action.. maximum 22 days on duty.. don’t know what you smoked mate: but I assure you is the good stuff!

Now. It IS an ACMI. There is no such thing as an employment contract, just like in ANY OTHER ACMI out there. Reason has to do with Industry risk. ACMIs take the other airlines risks away, and they can't take that risk themselves. Taxes are up to each individual and all pay is legal from the company side. If a specific person doesn't pay their taxes, that's their own responsibility, as it should be. All tax related information is provided by the company and the broker.
Despite this, the company does make an effort to treat crews with respect and decency, and we are treated as employees, not contractors.

you said it all: this is the first true thing in your post . “ there is no such a thing as an employment contract “ : it is changed continuously accordingly to the Clients you loose ( which are many..)

Those are the rules of the game. Don't join if you don't like them. Easy.
My pay is all legal and I pay my own social security and income taxes.
Could the money be better? Yes!
Then again, I'm flying max 9 days a month, and have the prospect of spending 3 to 5 months at home with family... do your math.
At the end of the summer season new contract conditions will be offered. An improvement is expected.

yes… the improvement is expected.. “waiting for Godot” .. ahhh sorry mate: it is Samuel Becket.. I always forget you have little time for reading books...

Obviously, some guys will leave.
But the main reason will be due to either not coping with a commuting roster 20/10, or a dream job opens up again (home based, or back to ME or China or somewhere out there).


interesting point of view : it is well known that these days every pilot is chasing China..:-) plenty of applications elsewhere, especially where they don’t check if you really did un upgrade somewhere, you really have that many hours, or you really attended a type rating course somewhere.

Assessment for pilots:
- 100 Q test, 90% technical, 10% ATPL
- Psycometrics, personality, etc. Nornal stuff.
- Panel interview (1 HR + 1 TRE)
- Psychologist interview
- Simulator assessment (LOE + PPC)
All done online except for the simulator.

ACMI is an interesting business to say the least.

Safe landings, and remember to flare once in a while.

You too buddy. And remember.. you work in the company that deserves you.

[Trollbuster]

This is a total lie...

Tashkent - Air Uzbek
Podgorica - Air Montenegro
Brno/Budapest - Smartwings
HAM/MUN - Marabu
DUS/HER - Condor

Company actively asks for reports to be made when there is a situation to report, and no "prosecution" is done.

You my friend, are a liar.


on the contrary.. you are the liar and clearly one of the mobsters in the clown’s enclave .

The safety manager is a yes man and the reports are used against people all the time , since there is indeed a punishment and blame culture, even for facts that never happened but can be used to sack not aligned people
I even go further: the company is renowned for mobbing and bullying at all level.

Talking about client’s contracts : why don’t you mention the one you lost as well, and why don’t you specify for how long the one above are signed..

[Trollbuster]

Some ACMI provided direct employment contract ( as Privatair in the past) with proper conditions. All these Baltic mafia airlines are working the same way and these kind of contract is chosen for obvious reasons as reducing cost and avoid paying Social contributions. We all know, staff is one of the top cost center after fuel. With a fee of 9000 euros/ month for Cpt is well too low. This should be the fee for a First officer and captain at least 15K during High season.
One of the main issue on these ACMI airlines you don't have home base. EU regulation is pretty clear on this that you have to pay social contributions in your home base country. Your positioning country is not your home base. If you are working on several bases ( different countries), it's your tax residentship country ( social welfare office) that determined where you should pay your contributions ( this included for freelancer/soletrader).
You are treated as an employee but your are not an employee. Your contract relationship is the most important. In good time you are an employee, when the downturn will come, you will be a contractor, simple as this... As long as you are aware of this, no surprise...
The main issue is the pilot himself/herself. The majority of them are playing tax evasion.
I personally settled down my sole trader company as a freelance pilot and paid my social contributions and tax in my residentship country.
The downturn of these contract, it's not stable and if you want to invest, buy your home/house, Banks are less entitled to give you a loan ( specially now with high interest rate) compared to permanent contract ( more stable). For those willing more stability ACMI is not the best choice.
For those who have everything and don't need and want to work part-time, live in the country where he/she wants ( In Europe at least) ACMI can be a good choice. This is the only advantage...
Personally, I enjoyed my time in some of them, but the worst one was smartlynx. Now working for a proper airline with proper contract, but if I wanted to carry on ACMI airline, Heston would have been on consideration.


Wetleasing may have legitimate place in the market, but when airlines abuse workers and ignore posted workers rights and temporary workers rights, some do not even have employees and work predominantly with fake self employed agents, it constitutes clear caee of labour exploitation and in some cases can be defines as human trafficking. Exploiting most vulneable is not business, it is criminal activity.

Heston , on top, is full of people with fake credentials that have no business in aviation : hence if you had considered it over competitors , you would have made a big mistake.

[IESS]

Alrigty, besides all the spew flowing from a bunch of anonym accounts with just ine posting in this topic …

does anyone have actual info on how the remuneration package and the schedule look like?
it is low season now, and I swe some flights from the Baltic states, a few from Germany and Uzbekistan, but how was it in the summer season?

[Madp1lot]

Alrigty, besides all the spew flowing from a bunch of anonym accounts with just ine posting in this topic …

does anyone have actual info on how the remuneration package and the schedule look like?
it is low season now, and I swe some flights from the Baltic states, a few from Germany and Uzbekistan, but how was it in the summer season?

Winter season 2023/2024:
1 A320 in each of the baltic capitals.
1 A320 in Nigeria with special Nigeria contract (full summer pay plus perdiems). Voluntary pilots. There's another A320 there, but will do short of 2 months project.
Rest of the A320s doing C checks and on standby for any short notice winter project.
A330s doing Uzbekistan project for Air Uzbekistan in Tashkent.

Summer was busy, 20/10 rotations.
Mainly Germany based.
Remuneration package is under review atm, and it will be presented in a couple of weeks maximum.
it is expected to match the baltic competition.

Most pilots are now doing a lot of the required trainings and recurrents for the upcoming season.

Hope this helps.

Cheers.

[lmfr]

Hi guys, I'm considering to do the assessment and self sponsored TR course on BAA training for Heston Airlines.

Any feedback about the assessment and about the company?

Thank you!!

[Pilot5003]

Hi guys, I'm considering to do the assessment and self sponsored TR course on BAA training for Heston Airlines.

Any feedback about the assessment and about the company?

Thank you!!

Hey man,
Did you get enrolled in the course? I am in a big dilemma as well. But I need to decide within a week.
private dm? Would be nice to discuss something

[Isaacicm]

Hi guys, I'm considering that option too. Maybe we can create a group.

[MIKEFX320]

Hello guys, I´m also thinking of joining the group for Heston Airlines assessment with partner ship with BAA . If you could help me i will be very glad.

[MIKEFX320]

Hello guys, I´m also consediring of joining the programm. Could you share some infos or add me to the group

[pilot76ph]

Hello guys, I´m also thinking of joining the group for Heston Airlines assessment with partner ship with BAA . If you could help me i will be very glad.

Guys, have you started the type rating program? Do you have any feedback from graduated individuals? Do you have a group conversation? I want to get in contact with you. Please contact me.

[pilot76ph]

Guys, have you started the type rating program? Do you have any feedback from graduated individuals? Do you have a group conversation? I want to get in contact with you. Please contact me.

[Pilot5003]

I decided to back off as the page is full of negative comments. And not a single person has talked positive about their training partner BAA and Heston.
good luck you guys!

[AirbusPhp]

Hey guys, if you decide to join a company like Heston, try to learn from the good pilots there and not the cowboys who like bending the rules just to complete the mission (working hours, approach minima, fuel policy etc). I started my flying career in a small airline not unlike the likes of Heston etc., where things like Standards and safety culture and regulatory compliance were all subject to commercial pressure. But amongst the 'cowboys' that we had, were a few real pilots who came or had been with proper airlines. The last 20 years I am now with a legacy airline and I am grateful to have experienced the two sides of how airlines can be run.