Airborne Hiring

DAB

DAB

New Member
Hey Everyone,

Just curious if we had anyone on here that is at ABX or GFS, or anyone that has spent any time there? I have noticed they are hiring for multiple positions at the current time, including Assistant Dispatcher, Dispatcher, and Supervisor of Flight Control (among other various positions). Just looking for any insight anyone might be able to provide. I know that ATSG got part of the Amazon business, so that is kind of interesting. Thanks in advance!!
 
I heard that the dispatchers there are making like $15 and are considered a third party company grouped with ABX and ATI. I also heard they don't have CASS. Which if any of that's true I'd stay away. Please confirm before trusting a random person on a thread you don't know... Just saying. Unless it's your first job and don't care about jumpseating, or I'm completely wrong. Then it would be a great experience dispatching 767s internationally.
 
I interviewed with them about two years ago. They offered me 47,000 a year and a 2,000 signing bonus to help me with moving expenses. You are correct mainline_or_bust they do not have CASS for dispatchers. This was for ABX.
 
It's in Ohio, it isn't in CASS, but it's international dispatch heavy jet experience in cargo ops.
 
So not too bad. The good news is that if you were to dispatch regionally out of DAY you would make enough to pay for a ticket versus PSA. I'd go interview and find out. 47k is pretty decent. Especially to start.
 
I am a GFS flight follower here at the ABX/ATI operations. DAB I am going to answer your questions here and if you have more you are more than welcome to PM me and we can go from there.

First off we flight followers make more than $15 dollars an hour. It is closer to roughly $20+ an hour depending on your years of service. We are not a regional airline and do not get compensated as such.

Second, we have the option to be in CASS since we are contractors for ATI. ABX has it's own rules on jumpseating and have not allowed anyone other than pilots to jumpseat on their flights. Now our families don't have jumpseating privileges but it is not a big deal.

We are flight following B757's and 767's for both ATI and ABX. We flight follow International, Domestic(DHL and Amazon), and ETOPS flight for both carriers.

It is pretty exciting right now with Amazon and we are getting pretty busy. I was about try and leave at one point but I am very curious to see how Amazon plays out. Amazon hasn't jumped on their 19% ownership as of yet but I think they will here shortly. I think they are waiting to have a few more aircraft flying in their system.

That is about all I am going to say right now. If you have more questions PM me and I will try to answer your questions to the extent that I am able to answer.

Also as a friendly FYI always make sure you post current facts about places that are hiring. It is very misleading and can deter people from applying somewhere where otherwise they would. Maybe some people don't want to come to Ohio and that is fine but personally I like it here and am glad I made that choice four years ago. A lot has changed since I have been here and it is rapidly changing with Amazon beginning to pull the strings.
 
jaydog said:
I am a GFS flight follower here at the ABX/ATI operations. DAB I am going to answer your questions here and if you have more you are more than welcome to PM me and we can go from there.

First off we flight followers make more than $15 dollars an hour. It is closer to roughly $20+ an hour depending on your years of service. We are not a regional airline and do not get compensated as such.

Second, we have the option to be in CASS since we are contractors for ATI. ABX has it's own rules on jumpseating and have not allowed anyone other than pilots to jumpseat on their flights. Now our families don't have jumpseating privileges but it is not a big deal.

We are flight following B757's and 767's for both ATI and ABX. We flight follow International, Domestic(DHL and Amazon), and ETOPS flight for both carriers.

It is pretty exciting right now with Amazon and we are getting pretty busy. I was about try and leave at one point but I am very curious to see how Amazon plays out. Amazon hasn't jumped on their 19% ownership as of yet but I think they will here shortly. I think they are waiting to have a few more aircraft flying in their system.

That is about all I am going to say right now. If you have more questions PM me and I will try to answer your questions to the extent that I am able to answer.

Also as a friendly FYI always make sure you post current facts about places that are hiring. It is very misleading and can deter people from applying somewhere where otherwise they would. Maybe some people don't want to come to Ohio and that is fine but personally I like it here and am glad I made that choice four years ago. A lot has changed since I have been here and it is rapidly changing with Amazon beginning to pull the strings.
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So was the rules different two years ago in regards to jumpseating? I remember when I interviewed he told me they didn't have that option. Is this something new?
 
Yes NYK things have changed quite a bit. Since we started flight following ATI we have the option to be in CASS if we want to. We started following for ATI about 10 months ago or so. We started CASS availability a few months ago. As a matter of fact I'm heading tomorrow out to California on ATN3003 right here out of ILN. I'm pretty stoked about it :).
 
As a side note I want to make sure that you all know that we are flight followers not dispatchers. We don't have operational control like the Part121 domestic/Flag do. Operational control is the responsibility of the DO (who gives us the responsibility of flight following, generating the flight paperwork, etc). However, all responsibility lands on the DO. I think here the word dispatcher gets thrown around because we operate so close to a part121 Domestic/Flag we forget we are not. Just an FYI
 
jaydog said:
Yes NYK things have changed quite a bit. Since we started flight following ATI we have the option to be in CASS if we want to. We started following for ATI about 10 months ago or so. We started CASS availability a few months ago. As a matter of fact I'm heading tomorrow out to California on ATN3003 right here out of ILN. I'm pretty stoked about it :).
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Glad you have CASS now. Working for a cargo operation with no flight benefits or way to jumpseat doesn't sound like much fun. Have fun in California!
 
To each their own. Fun is all a matter of perspective. For me fun is chilling in the acre backyard of the house that I own, working in my garden, playing ball with my kids, etc. Fun for me is slowing down and enjoying life as it comes and not trying to rush towards something to make my life better. Already been there and done that. For me flight benefits were an absolute drag. It was ok if just myself went somewhere but when I had to bring the whole family standby was absolutely horrible. I hated the experience, my wife hated the experience and my kids hated the experience. We don't miss the benefits and don't even think about them anymore. I don't work up 60 flights anymore (maybe 13 at the most on a given day) and I can do other things like read or create websites or other activities while I flight follow. I don't have management breathing down my neck whenever I tried to make an operational decision that opposed their agenda. I work for some really great managers. I wouldn't trade that for a regional job, part 135 job or a mainline job.

I said at that to say this. Work isn't fun. It never is and never will be. How we view our work makes it enjoyable. Personally I want to win the lotto and never work again but I know that won't happen. So how I view my work and life and what I do with it determines if it is fun or not. :)
 
jaydog said:
To each their own. Fun is all a matter of perspective. For me fun is chilling in the acre backyard of the house that I own, working in my garden, playing ball with my kids, etc. Fun for me is slowing down and enjoying life as it comes and not trying to rush towards something to make my life better. Already been there and done that. For me flight benefits were an absolute drag. It was ok if just myself went somewhere but when I had to bring the whole family standby was absolutely horrible. I hated the experience, my wife hated the experience and my kids hated the experience. We don't miss the benefits and don't even think about them anymore. I don't work up 60 flights anymore (maybe 13 at the most on a given day) and I can do other things like read or create websites or other activities while I flight follow. I don't have management breathing down my neck whenever I tried to make an operational decision that opposed their agenda. I work for some really great managers. I wouldn't trade that for a regional job, part 135 job or a mainline job.

I said at that to say this. Work isn't fun. It never is and never will be. How we view our work makes it enjoyable. Personally I want to win the lotto and never work again but I know that won't happen. So how I view my work and life and what I do with it determines if it is fun or not. :)
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Wasn't trying to badmouth your current gig, just saying that working for an airline with no flight benefits of any kind (including jumpseating) didn't sound very attractive to me. Now, flight benefits definitely are not the benefit they were in the pre-deregulation era. Even since the 2000's flights are a lot more full now than they once were. However, if you're willing to be creative and flexible, they can still be worthwhile. A married co-worker of mine last summer took his family (wife and two kids) to Maui and then later to Germany and they all got there and back no problem. Of course, being at a major does help, as non-rev boarding priority for regional employees is very low (I have been there and done that also.) Heck, I am single and can jumpseat but I will still buy a revenue ticket on occasion to make sure I am getting on a flight once in a while.

As you said, everyone's situation is different and I'm glad you are happy where you're at. I will also say that I am very pro-dispatch getting admitted to the jumpseat and don't understand why ABX doesn't allow it...but as long as you can get CASS through ATI I guess it's not that big of a deal for you.
 
Oh I know you weren't badmouthing my current gig :). I was just saying why I was happy here. Also ABX is weird. When the flight following group went over to GFS and left ABX the FAA put their put down and said that because we were not actual employees of ABX we couldn't jumpseat ABX anymore. ABX doesn't even allow other dispatchers to jumpseat. So I don't really know what is going on but ABX says no to anyone other than pilots, required mx personnel, and of course the super higher uppers in the management/ownership chain.

As far a flying standby and having to do all that work to make it to where you wanted to go or make it back home was just too much of a headache for me. So no thank you. I prefer to either pay for a tickets or just stay home.

Again I knew you weren't badmouthing so you are cool. .
 
I assume jumpsesting is just one of the benefits of being in CASS. What else are you entiled to? I'm still figuring which school to attend, so if my question sounds a bit simple, please excuse me!
 
LX015 said:
I assume jumpseating is just one of the benefits of being in CASS. What else are you entitled to? I'm still figuring which school to attend, so if my question sounds a bit simple, please excuse me!
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It's OK. CASS allows you to jumpseat in the cockpit of other airlines, not just your own. Airlines are not required to put dispatchers in CASS, but most of them do.
 
I currently work with jaydog and he is absolutely spot-on. Things are different at GFS than any other place because we aren't employed directly by either airline that we flight follow for. It will nit be for everybody. I also think that it may be a little bit tougher to get used to if you have significant Flag/ International/ Etops experience. Some adjust to the "contract flight following" better than others. I even disagree with the concept of having a separate company having flight followers not employed by the airlines, but this is the job that I CHOSE and it is my job now to offer these airlines the same service as any other flight. Some days, I forget that I dont work for the airlines because everyone is clicking as a team between all the combined groups.

However, I have said it before and I will say it again. Apply. Interview. Ask questions. See if you can sit down with a flight follower after the interview to get a taste of how things flow. See what you think will work best for you in your situation and where you want to be in life.

I have jumpseated via CASS with other carriers recently with no issues as part of the agreement that ATI gave us when we started planning their flights.
 
Clrd2land and Jaydog...great information. I appreciate the information immensely! Wasn't sure if we had anyone on here from GFS, and I guess we do!! Always good to get some insider input! Grew up in the Dayton area, so ABX has always had my attention. Thanks again all.
 
I disagree with the contract dispatch philosophy myself, but I suppose it will continue as an option in supplemental ops for some time to come. Glad that it appears to be dead for regular part 121 (for now, at least.) Glad the ADF and other public commenters helped shine a light on Jeppesen's shenanigans.
 
Why is it bad that Jeppesen has their own services they provide? Some companies aren't big enough to justify having their own OCC, right?
 
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