Westjet or AC?

Anyone from Westjet or Air Canada on the boards who could tell me what the benefits are like with online and offline flights?

I'm getting a bit restless here and was thinking about doing a working holiday to expand my horizons and career opportunities. I have about 20 options (unfortunately USA isn't on of them) so thought Canada or UK.

Canada is cheaper in terms of visa cost, and amount needed to prove you can support yourself ($4000, can be credit card). UK is expensive for the visa and I think you need $5000 to prove you can support yourself. Downside of Canada is less aviation, and no reciprocal health benefits so insurance has to be purchased. No idea what insurance costs, but "not cheap" comes to mind. Everywhere I looks seems to point to travel insurance, which isn't what I think they want exactly.

So basically one pays $190, gets a letter of introduction valid for 1 year so then you can start job searching. Then when you arrive they give you 24months working visa. UK starts the 2 years as soon as you get the visa on lodgement in Australia, so Canada certainly beats them there.

Anyways that's my rant... I really only needed to post they first line, eh?

I could be totally off here, but isn't there some uniformity or something along those lines within the Star Alliance's benefits? Plus, on AC you've got a lot more international destination possibilities. From a US perspective, it's like United vs. Southwest.

Good luck, whatever you end up doing!

mmm good point. I mean westjet seems a very interesting culture, need to research a bit more. This is a medium term plan, so 6 to 12 months from now. Plus my issue is I want to target a job that will help me move fwd, rather than any old job I can get here!

Hi

Westjet is a great place to work with a Fantastic Culture. The company is growing at an amazing pace and offers numerous opportunities. As with most companies in Canada you will need to apply and reciee work permits on your own, however once you have them, then you can apply.

We travel across Canada, to the United States, The Carribean, Mexico, Bermuda, Bahamas, and Hawaii. The good thing here is that there are no Unions, and never a lay-off in our over 14 years in service. As well, we were in the top 5 most profitable airlines in the world. We just celebrated 19 consecutive quarters of profit. We have a profit share every 6 months, and fantastic medical benefits / travel benefits.

Health insurance in Canada is not that expensive. My mother-in-law who is not Canadian paid about $1000.00 for 12 months of coverage.

Hope it works for you!

Montreal is really a hot bed for Avitaion..HQ of IATA, ICAO, Air Canada, Bombardia and several MRO's(AVEOS, Rolls Royce, Pratt and Whitney, and Bell Helicopter.

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Westjet is a great place to work with a Fantastic Culture. The company is growing at an amazing pace and offers numerous opportunities. As with most companies in Canada...

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More like "WJ WAS a great place to work and HAD a fantastic culture. The company WAS growing at an amazing pace and OFFERED numerous opportunities."

Finish this sentence "As with most companies in Canada", both AC and WJ will stagnate and eventually, after all the blood-letting, WJ will cap out in size and AC will beg for a government bail-out, new paint and a new song to replace the present crap spewed by Celiene Dion, most likely produced by that new tramp on the block, Avril Lavigne.

The airline situation in Canada is grim to say the least, and I have been part of it my entire life. As a child, my father was #1 F/O at TCA. When I started flying and had an interest in joining AC he told me about what it was really like there and what would happen with Canadian. He called the shot- eight years before it happened!

Now the market is dominated in Canada by AC and WJ- it has similar patterns as in OZ with Queensland and Virgin battling it out.
There is Porter, a slick, niche Deluce operation, and Sun Wing, the spin-off from the ex Michel Leblanc old boys club, and assorted other small time options, but one thing is clear: The market is saturated in Canada. there are simply too many seats for the population. Unfortunately, there will always be someone out there who will try to make a buck.
Take New Air, set up by former WestJet executives, led by co-founder Tim Morgan, who drew up plans to launch a new Canadian carrier. Now they are a charter operator. CanJet... again, once a mainstay in the east and now a sunspot charter outfit- Ken, the owner, did get a nice hangar out of the deal, but CJ had a stale date from day one...
In China there are 30 airports already running above traffic levels of Pearson. Malaysia, Indonesia, India- they all operate at levels way beyond that in Canada.
Short story is forget comparing AC and WJ.
Want a job? Go get one where there is a market.
Oh, but there is the socialized health care in Canada...

I must say I repectfully disagree. I would say we have grown more in the last year then we ever had , and we continued to make a profit during the downturn in the economy.To top it all off is still a great place to work.I think Either way you go Canada is very rich in the aviation industry and like the previous poster said socialized medicine and in Alberta where WJ is based is doesn't cost you anything at all.That being said Tim's Company is called Enerjet and is a charter company. Sunwing and Sunquest vacations recently became one vacation charter company. A more important question to be posed is what is you skill set for the aviation industry? What are you looking to gain from the experience?

There are pros and cons to both airlines. Air Canada at the moment has the larger international network for non-rev purposes, but I believe WJ is close to signing a code share agreement? Correct me if I'm wrong hgarner. Montreal is definitely a good place to be for aviation jobs, but expect bilingualism in FRench/English to be an important part of the job. Actually, that's something to keep in mind for both airlines. If you are going to work in a customer-facing position you will most likely need to be fluent in both languages. It's less of a priority for non customer facing roles (at least at AC).

Another thing to note - Air Canada is a behemoth. While we fly on behalf of AC, jazz is a completely separate company. You can find our career opportunities here: www.flyjazz.ca/careers . I think AC ground handling is a separate company too, so you should google those opportunities. Finally, since CAnada's a huge country, you could also check out some smaller airlines like Air Georgian. Not as many non-rev opportunities, but those small stations will be a big difference from your current lifestyle I'd imagine! Feel free to PM me for more info.