detailer

senior diesel mechanic

aircraft cleaner

senior mechanic

wheelchair attendant

PrimeFlight Aviation

Safety is an issue. The company we work under has poor safety awareness. Corporate could care less. No raises are apparent. Very little raise over a great deal of time, or from expecting a certain quota out of you. There are two positions. Detailer and Lead. Detailers get base pay, Lead gets significantly more. But only have room for one Lead. And pay is “secret” among employees, entailing everybody gets paid differently. For the amount of work we do, what we do, for who we do it for, we should be getting paid a career salary. We complete thousands of dollars of work on multimillion dollar aircraft. We should be getting paid more than a retail worker. Training is confusing. No specific guidelines to follow or official training. That’s the Lead’s job to train but when they only hire one, that leaves other co-workers to show you the ropes. Except everyone does it their own way. Whichever way you choose is not how the veterans want you to do it. Manager shows you a way that was never mentioned. Always bringing something up that is wrong, regardless if thats how we were trained or what little resources we have to work with. Work can get interrupted  constantly by pulling planes out of the hangar while we are working on it. Therefor stopping our work. And the big one: Benefits are a bare minimum. No vacation time is offered. PTO is only earned if you hit 40 hours a week. And only 2 hours are granted. The kicker is, we are cut off just short of 40 hours if you stay until the general time to go home. So no PTO is rewarded unless you’re the only one that stays late….to earn 2 hours. After 8 months of working, (no time off requested) I earned a total of 20 hours of PTO….a coworker was excited recently that they had 1 day of PTO in a year….that’s when I knew I put my time in at this company. And they mentioned that right before they quit.

My experience with the Miami station leadership team and HR department at PrimeFlight Aviation Services was disappointing overall. The hiring process moved extremely slowly, taking nearly a month before an offer was finally extended. Communication throughout the process lacked consistency and professionalism, and the overall candidate experience felt poorly managed.

Once the offer was finally made, there was an immediate expectation to begin within only a few days, with little willingness to accommodate a reasonable professional transition period. I requested only one additional week before starting, especially considering the lengthy interview and decision-making process on the company’s side, but was told that if I could not start immediately, they would move on to another candidate. Ironically, the same role was reposted only a few weeks later, which made their unwillingness to be flexible even more disappointing.

The compensation offered also did not feel competitive relative to the operational demands, leadership expectations, and overall responsibilities of the position.

The experience left the impression that both the Miami station leadership and HR department operate with a highly reactive and pressure-driven approach while lacking flexibility, communication, and professionalism toward leadership candidates. Based on my interactions, the environment did not appear particularly supportive or collaborative from a management perspective.

While the company may offer opportunities for individuals seeking fast-paced operational experience, candidates considering leadership roles within the Miami station should carefully evaluate whether the culture, compensation, and expectations align with their long-term professional goals.

Came over from Swissport when Swissport contracted out its GSE work to Global Aviation. I did parts and some administration -- I was told I only had to worry about the parts, and they would have someone else do the paperwork side. 2 weeks after Global opens up shop, I am tasked with entering paperwork on Swissport's system as well as my current duties for parts clerk, with each having enough work for 1 person full time. 

I got little to no support on the admin side. The other admin had her hands full on Global's paperwork and did not have much time to learn and input paperwork into Swissport's system. By the time they relieved me of my parts duties to focus on the paperwork, I was several months behind and could barely make any headway with the paperwork being generated by the mechanics each day. 

Making things more difficult was that I needed to input parts invoices into Swissport's system, and getting those invoices proved to be quite a challenge, which in turn, delayed finishing some of the paperwork. 

They finally hire a 3rd admin person. I helped train her because I thought they we were going to clear out the paperwork that needed to be entered into Swissport's system and then I could go back to doing my Parts Clerk duties while she took over data entry for Swissport's system. But no, they let me go once her training was basically complete. I guess that is to be expected when one of the two regional managers who let me go had told me a month prior that he had fired 4 mechanics within 2 hours of arriving at a one of their stations. 

I really feel for the supervisor who has to run both their shops as he is a cool dude but he has to deal with micromanaging regional managers from higher up and who make regular trips to their SFO station.

When i first came into this job, the people seemed welcoming, friendly, almost nice. I was trained by a female employee. I soon learned that the employees were unhappy and i hadnt figured out why until I had a few more months in the company.

A typical day of employment for a female is getting looks and comments from guys, but dont dare tell management. Theyll "handle it" by airing out your laundry to other employees and your cost is being ignored and glared at by other employees. To where the situation isnt handled, just aired until it dies down.

As for the employees- Did i mention gossip is a daily struggle? They hire young people at lower pay, to which the consequence is constant gossip and arguments.

The hardest part is that the opportunity for advancement in this job is almost at 0. I learned this from the employees who had been there for almost ten years. The employee appreciation parties were cold pizzas in the employee clock in room. Paid vacations come after 5 years of employment, where the days to claim your vacation were numbered. Yes, your vacation had an expiration date!

There were no lockers provided for most employees, and things constantly stolen. No benefits are included in this job. It is literally a dead end where they wont advance lower employees to higher positions, but instead HIRE SOMEONE ELSE.

The enjoyable part of the job were the days off. Which were made multiple by the company cutting hours and pay at everyone's expense except to those who are under the favoritism wing.

This job is good for those who are just getting by with no goals, inspiration or much experience.

I have NEVER seen an airline vendor as unprofessional, as inconsiderate, and as backstabbing as I have with PrimeFlight.  The reasons are as follows:  

-Payroll: 
-There are employees that are working 40 hours a week and going A MONTH without getting a paycheck.
-If you work overtime, even if it's legitimate, management will ALTER your hours without your permission.  I've witnessed this.

-Working Conditions: 
-While we are working and not getting paid for it, we are being asked to work in 100 degree weather in vehicles with no working air conditioning.  This includes pregnant women.
-Their breakroom is in a storage facility cage. Don't ask how many roaches we've killed.

-Culture
-One manager in particular refers to us as animals, the b word, and the n word on a REGULAR basis.  I've heard them telling another supervisor this in her office.
-If you don't have a spine, the gossip and the constant negativity will rip your joy to shreds.
-Employees pull out their private parts and show them to other employees while cleaning planes. When brought to the leadership team, nothing gets done because they "need people with a driving badge".

Conclusion:

We do have some good hearted people here who are really trying to turn the culture around, but their efforts are overshadowed by a looming toxicity the likes of which I've never seen in a workplace environment. My boss, who I thought really could make this place better because they really cared about us, quit, and it broke my heart. I truly hope the rest of us do not become callused by our experience here.

If you need to make some small cash you can apply here and easily get hired if you're a good worker. however, the job is really heavy and you have to depend on others to do THEIR OWN JOB which is difficult because they can be unreliable. Everyone must help everyone, so if everyone is slacking you have to help everyone else finish. it becomes unfair when you get taken advantage of because of your capable productivity . So you get paid the same as everyone else but you have to break your back more because you're told to. Drama is poisonous and unhealthy but even if you complain to management, they wont do a single thing. In the end all they do is talk about it but nothing is really resolved or gets done about it. So nobody gets written up or fired basically because they're desperate for people. If you ever have a problem go to HR, thats the only way.  The pay is sketchy here , my base pay should be high but it went even lower. The company has a reason for it but its unfair promises and they dont even bother telling you about it until you find out and ask.  So watch your payments!!

The job can be fun trust me . its just the hard labor that gets heavy and overwhelming. Lack of faith in management is also a thing. Not everyone is friendly but there are a handful of good people. My advice is try to create a teamwork environment with your coworkers, watch your $, and if you have an issue ; contact the HR department. Dont be afraid to stick up for yourself. You should be happy as long as you know what to do to protect yourself and ease your worries. You can create a happy environment for yourself.  Honestly with all of this, you may even enjoy coming to work everyday.

I will focus on what's good about working for pf and leave criticism for last. The job it's self is very simple. It becomes part of your muscle memory after awhile. If you can imagine the steps it takes to fuel a automobile, you are not far off from the steps in fueling a plane. It is again, very easy work. Warning, if you can't handle lifting standing walking for long periods of time this may not be for you. I walk on average 13000 steps a day, sometimes more. In all manner of weather conditions, snow, rain, blazing heat and below freezing temperatures. Some of the cons are low starting pay in my opinion. Some of the guys that work here work 90 hour weeks in higher positions and make just a dollar more than I do per hour. The workload through covid has been harsh considering the uncertainty of how the airlines will pull out of this year financially. That same aspect also determines the work load for us. More planes going out, more work, less planes less work. There are no breaks and lunches on this job, if your plane is in range, you rest until it gets there at the gate you are dispatched to. The process to get hired and start work is around 4 weeks due to the airport backlog for badging people. So if you get hired it's an investment you have to consider time wise. There is an established group here, if you are liked you will have a great time working here. If you are not, obviously you will not have a good time and likely be pushed out in some way. The operation is growing due to new contracts but is hindered by hiring process delays and lack of people interested in the job.

Throughout my employment I have been treated like an outsider by my peers, with 1 exception. Perhaps this was because that I asked a lot of questions and received a lot of lip service and it never sat well with me. I was instructed to learn this business from the people who did all of the damage and in turn train them. In retrospect this made no sense. I was set up for failure from the start.

To discuss a plan with my supervisor a month prior and to have him denigrate me for it in front of my employees was really special. This might have been the highlight of my short career. Of course he didn’t feel the need to tell me up front that this plan was tried before and failed. Perhaps if I knew why it had failed before adjustments could have been made. And my supervisor didn’t think I needed to know any history of the previous failures. To me, it sounds like someone is hiding something. I can tell you this, there are a lot of secrets shared amongst a few. I also find it interesting how miserable the customers were when I arrived. That didn’t happen overnight either. One has to ask, where was the management oversight? Someone got a little unnerved when I asked that question. I was let go the next day. 

This company preaches employees first, when the real truth is profits first. I reviewed 3 months of invoices due to a customer concern, and when I brought my findings forth, no one was interested in fixing the problem, only in what can be billed to the customers. 

 Stay away from this company. Its not worth the grief

I worked at Prime Flight in Albuquerque, management bent over backwards to support their techs and make the work environment comfortable. That being said, not all job postings at the Albuquerque branch are equal - depending on where you are placed an enclosed shop enviroment may or may not exists, over time pay may not be allowed due to contracts with Prime Flights clients, even when you are required to be on call for a week every month, and effective resources such as up to date manuals, subject matter experts and current repair data for specific equipment can be nonexistent. Management helped me to learn the equipment and it was useful, reduced my weekly schedule to accomodate on call time, but eventually even they have their limitations of repair knowledge and reduced daily schedules dont offset my gas spent while on call. Additionally, like all trades you'll have honest, hard working people and those who lie, cut corners and who make a pile of problems that roll down to you. This was my experience, but it is not specific to Prime Flight alone i admit. In the end, it just wasnt the place for me.

What is the best part of working at the company?
The best part of working for PrimeFlight in my position is the flexibility and reasonableness of its managers. I have a condition that makes it hard to work all the time and my managers have been very supportive and they always try to accommodate me when I need time off.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The most stressful part of working for Primeflight at my location is the pay and transportation options available to you for my shift. The position pays minimum wage which seems unfair at times for what they expect you to put up with and you MUST have a car to travel to work as no public tranport is available for the shift.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Overall the environment at Primeflight at my location is laid back and supportive. The job is simple, the people are real and friendly, and it has a lot of perks- its a good job for if you need to figure some stuff out/ have other obligations and still need to be working.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
You start your shift using a custom software to see what planes you have to clean each day. You then pack your work bag with cleaning supplies and proceed to go out and clean the planes recording your progress as you go. Afterwards you dump any trash that you have collected and record your progress in the custom software.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Detailer 236 salaries reported	$19.33 per hour
Senior diesel mechanic 54 salaries reported	$32.96 per hour
Aircraft cleaner 165 salaries reported	$17.70 per hour
Senior mechanic 98 salaries reported	$32.83 per hour
Wheelchair attendant 102 salaries reported	$15.45 per hour

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