Heston Airlines
Join Date: Aug 2016
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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.
Join Date: Sep 2023
Location: Vilnius
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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.
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.
Join Date: Sep 2023
Location: Vilnius
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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.
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..
Join Date: Sep 2023
Location: Vilnius
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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.
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.
Join Date: Apr 2019
Location: Hardover
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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?
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?
Join Date: Jan 2012
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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?
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?
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.
Join Date: Feb 2024
Location: Portugal
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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!!
Any feedback about the assessment and about the company?
Thank you!!
Join Date: Oct 2023
Location: Norway
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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
Join Date: Mar 2024
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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.
Join Date: Mar 2024
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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.
Join Date: Jan 2008
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friendly advice
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.
