Aviation

Crew Scheduler for Sky Regional

In my last year of college, I began to apply for full-time jobs in Aviation. I was still working at ATS (Airport Terminal Services) as a Passenger Service Agent but the winter season was coming which meant the flight schedule for Icelandair would go from two flights a day to one flight a day. We bid our schedule based on seniority and since I was one of the most junior employees I knew that I would not be getting a lot of hours. I began to look for other jobs. I didn’t have much luck for a while but months later I got a call from Sky Regional for the crew scheduler position that I had applied for a while back. I had an interview and it all happened so fast. My only concern at that time was how I would be able to do both school and work. Luckily for me, I only had school twice a week but all full day 8 am – 4 pm. The schedule at Sky was 4 days on and 4 days off. If the days I worked happen to fall on my school days I had the option to shift trade with my colleagues. I was lucky to have such amazing colleagues that would help me with shift trades to make sure I was able to make it to my classes.

This was my first time working directly for an airline so I was really nervous but also excited to learn new things and experience aviation more. My title at Sky was Crew Scheduler. As a crew scheduler, we ensure all flights have the appropriate amount of flight attendants and pilots. Every month the Crew Planners put together flights into what we call a pairing, place it on the crew member’s schedule and then publish the schedule for the month. (Pairing is a collection of flights put together). After the schedule is published it is the scheduler’s job to staff any flights that become open. For example, if someone calls in sick, removed off flying as per management etc. If any pairing becomes open we staff it with pilot or flight attendants on reserve. The idea behind reserve is very similar to what most people are familiar with as on-call. Pilots and Flight attendants are on reserve for certain days throughout the month and they are called upon when a pairing becomes open. Another element of our job is ensuring that pilots are complying with the Canadian Aviation Regulations (CARs). For example when I was the crew scheduler pilots needed to have 3 consecutive days off in 17 days and/or 36 consecutive hours off in 7 days. If pilots do not receive one or the other they will need to be removed as it is not legal for them to operate.  (Please note CARs rules have changed since I was a scheduler)

Crew Scheduling can also be challenging because we would have to work in a fast-paced environment sometimes as well as under pressure. When there is a open flight and we run out of reserve and no one is willing to pick up overtime that is when we get stressed out. We would have to do swaps by taking crew off other flights to cover one flight and it would get really stressful. We are working tirelessly to ensure we do not cancel the flight. 

I worked at Sky Regional from Oct 2018 – Jan 2020. It was such an amazing experience and built a lot of friendships and working relationships as well. I learned so much about the behind the scenes of an airline and gained a lot of experience as well. One of my last tasks at Sky regional was classroom training with 4 new schedulers. It was my first time implementing a training program and doing classroom training. I enjoyed it a lot and will cherish all the memories I’ve made with my former colleagues.