Last week was the final MEC/Management meeting of the year. The following items were discussed:

Trip Trades With WJA DHs

Your MEC had asked the Company if the CA language that prevents trip trades for pairings that have DHs booked on other carriers could be waived for DHs booked on WestJet since we now operate as one group of companies. The Company informed us that the vast majority of all trip trades are done through eCrew, and that changing what the trip trade module allows would require meetings with AIMs and an update to eCrew. This will not occur prior to June 1, 2025, when the AOC is planned to be turned back so unfortunately the status quo will remain.

WestJet Operating Sunwing Vacations Flying

Although WestJet has four dedicated wet-lease aircraft operating on behalf of Sunwing Vacations this year, pilots have observed other Sunwing Vacations flights being operated by WestJet. The Company was unable to provide a precise amount of the Sunwing Vacations flying being operated by WestJet this winter season, however they informed us that we should expect to see a transition of more flying over to WestJet as the winter continues. This will begin to accelerate in March when Sunwing aircraft start to get transferred over to the WestJet AOC.

Golden GDOs

The Company has now placed a pause on approving Golden GDO requests until everyone’s WestJet Report Dates have been issued. Both your MEC and the Flight Ops leadership team have asked WestJet to allow our pilots to make SDO requests for dates in 2025 while they are at Sunwing. We are all still waiting to hear from WestJet if that will be approved and what process they will create for us to make SDO requests.

Voluntary Departure Program

Our Collective Agreement has language in it for a Voluntary Departure Program that essentially allows Sunwing to offer buy-out packages for pilots who are close to retirement age. We have a small number of pilots who will be reaching age 65 shortly after the integration with WestJet occurs and your MEC presented the idea to the Company that activating the VDP could offer a win-win for both our pilots and the Company. The Flight Ops leadership team recognized the possible merits of the VDP and agreed to examine it in closer detail. They are hoping they will be able to share further details by the end of January.

WestJet Integration

The precise plan on how to integrate our pilot group into WestJet is still being developed between Sunwing and WestJet. Sunwing hopes to publish a FOAM prior to the end of the year that will outline the broad strokes of how the transition plan will work. Unfortunately, Report Dates for every individual pilot will not be able to be communicated prior to the end of the year as Sunwing will need to hold meetings with the WestJet Chief Pilot office in early 2025 to finalize those dates.

Wind Down of Sunwing Airlines

Our pilots can expect the pace of communication and information sharing to really begin to pick up in 2025. The first group of 70 pilots to be trained, as well as the first SWG aircraft, will begin the transition process in late March. The final Sunwing aircraft will move over to WestJet on June 1, 2025. No more flying at Sunwing is planned following that date and the AOC will be handed back to Transport Canada shortly afterwards. The Company could not confirm whether all pilots will be assigned Report Dates prior to June 1, 2025. There may be pilots remaining at Sunwing and waiting for their Report Dates even though there are no longer any flights, aircraft or AOC remaining.

A Vacation Bid that will allow pilots to bid on their 2025 pro-rated WestJet vacation allotment will be released in March. Both the Company and your MEC would have liked to have had the bid released sooner, however it was pointed out that the language in Arbitrator Gedalof’s award was quite clear that the bid must be released in March. For pilots who still have awarded vacation from this past fall’s vacation bid, the Company has said that those vacation dates will not be touched and so pilots should feel secure to book things on those dates, however a pilot may have already reported to WestJet and begun their training prior to their vacation period.

Last but not least, the TC Medical Fee which is normally pre-paid to pilots early in the new year will not be paid out this year as the Company is unable to know if pilots will have reported to WestJet prior to their medical date. As a result, any pilot who does their medical while at Sunwing can submit an expense claim to receive the TC Fee. If a pilot has already reported to WestJet at the time their medical is due, they will need to submit an expense claim using the WestJet CA2 process to be paid their TC Fee.