Sunwing Airlines
 

Can anybody tell me please, How is to work there as a pilot, what are the conditions, the benefits, salary, annual leave, end of service benefits, time for command upgrade, etc, thank you in advance.

Not going to outline my relationship with Sunwing Airlines, however i can tell you the situation:

- Sunwing has about 40+ 737 aircraft, in the summer months this drops to about 17 as majority of aircraft are wet leases and partnerships with TUIFLY, JETAIRFLY, THOMSON and TRAVELSERVICE. Majority of the pilots who work year round are permanent pilots, the rest are hired on contract and called back every fall/winter season, and many of these seasonal pilots are apart of those European Airlines themselves
- Lots of pilots come from 737 operators from India, Europe, South America and the States, as long as you have couple thousand hours on the 737, you'll be put forth in the interview line.
- Long term, not the place to be unless you are a permanent pilot which is extremely hard given the very slow summer months - no upgrades
- The pilots have their own union, get paid industry standard, no complaints
- I can't comment on pay and benefits or schedule but if you have the ability and really want to move to Canada, Westjet/AC would be far better options.

OMG!! :mad:
I think I'm losing my mind.
Someone, please, answer this poor man's questions.
:ugh:

Willie

Striker,
It doesn't look like you work for SWG. So why posting info here if you have no clue about it?

Whilst on a crew bus last year I overheard their two pilots refer to them as "Scumwing", interesting, but I doubt much should be made of it, just typical "pilot talk" methinks.

CMD-A - Don't be so quick to judge. Why does it matter to you if i work/don't work at SWG? Maybe i do? I was just sharing the knowledge i had, maybe im not a pilot for SWG, but what's the harm in providing some info on the airline and an opinion to maybe provide a little insight/direction to others? It's called privacy brother and respecting an opinion lol, hopefully a SWG pilot can enlighten everyone on the specifics.

you have to also understand the relationship between most of those European airlines and Sunwing Airlines. TUI AG that owns the TUI airlines also has a 49% share of Sunwing Vacations and Sunwing Airlines, hence the benefit to the European business in being able to utilise the aircraft and crew in winter by sending them to Canada.

In addition, in the summer, a couple of SWG aircraft operate for Thomson out of the Republic of Ireland with SWG pilots and Thomson cabin crew.

Sunwing will be hiring circa 90 seasonal pilots in the coming months. These pilots will train and line indoc over the summer and fall to be ready for the peak in December to April. In the same time frame, there will be 30 to 40 upgrades. This follows the 100 pilots hired and 30 upgrades last year.

In the past, most seasonal pilots have been offered permanent positions, but for the coming year this would be pretty doubtful, as it would mean a surprising growth in the business for summer 2017. Summer 2016 has an unprecedented 8 aircraft and 150 pilots headed to Europe.

Working conditions are good with multiple seasonal bases across the country increasing the likelihood of working near a city of your choice. Starting pay for seasonal pilots is close to $70/hr with minimum guaranty of 80-90 hrs per month. Overtime is excellent at 1.5 to 2 times base pay. This is higher than the starting FO rate, but as a seasonal pilots you receive no health or retirement benefits.

You receive 11 guaranteed days off per month and average 12-16 days worked per month.

Overall, I recommend it as it is now difficult to join either WJ or AC directly, and even a seasonal position at Sunwing would be superior to joining Encore or an AC regional with the hopes of getting to mainline.