baggage handler

passenger service agent

ground support equipment mechanic

customer service representative

crew supervisor

Airport Terminal Services

This was an O.K place to work for the most part. I've had worse jobs. Like most menial jobs, this one became boring fairly quickly. There was a lot of time off between flights. Some of us would refuel vehicles and get ready for upcoming flights, others would vanish until their flight showed up. Mostly they would go to the green lot ( the parking lot ) and smoke pot from a vaporiser so they wouldn't smell of marihuana. Then work and drive around the planes as high as kites. some crew chiefs too. Every body knew who they were, but they were never confronted.
   It was a very transient workforce. After 8 months, I was more than half way up the seniority list. Management was transient too. Several different senior managers came and went in the almost 2 years I was there. We rarely saw or heard from them. I stopped caring about who was in charge. 
  Training was hit and miss. There were opportunities to advance, but you had to bug them for training and it seemed that the " favored few" got preference.
   The company emphasized safety, but it was mostly a paper trail kind of safety. If the paperwork was signed, then the " safety " proceedures were assumed to be in place. There was a policy that stated that any employee could " lock out " a piece of equipment if it was deemed to be unsafe. A tag was attached warning that it was not to be used until repaired. These tags were always ignored and torn off and the equipment was back in service without repair. 
   Our company's had a contract with an airline to repair their ground service equipment. Our mechanics would ignore its own companys equipment because the company made money repairing the airlines equipment. Therefore, our own equipment was always backlogged at the shop, or just put back into service with only a quick fix. 
  There is a union, but it is mostly a fake union. Dues are collected, but there are no benefits. The senior union officials on site, or " shop stewards " are just like a branch of management. If you get in trouble with management for any reason, then they will just side with management, or sit by silently and not even attempt to pick up for their union " brother ", unless it's one of the favored few.
   Now, all this being said, it was a pretty good place to work. The wages were fairly competitive, and the work was only hard in short spurts of lifting heavy luggage. The rest became a comfortable routine. The crews were friendly and mostly helpful to the new hires, and the field supervisors were fair. There are a lot of good jobs at the airport that pay better. My advice would be to work for A.T.S until you get your security clearance, then apply to work directly for one of the airlines. They have flight benefits and are better organised.

It used to be a very cool and chill place to work at but management changed and the HR really just sucks. Sometimes you don’t get paid properly because of the system they use so you’ll always have to double check and cross check your paycheque and the hours you actually worked via the clock in clock out system. Work place is somewhat chill if you aren’t a total monkey, most things are common sense to be honest but most of the people that work here don’t really have a brain. It’s a labor intensive job so if you can’t do work or if you are slow, chances are they will talk smack about you and your name will become infamous within the hundreds of employees as no one will want to work with you and eventually they will find every excuse to get rid of you unless you perform better regardless of how strong or weak you are.
You’ll do well if you are able to handle criticism even if they are bad ones sometimes ridiculous ones and able to follow rules as well as always willing to learn and take initiative (just don’t do it if you aren’t trained) they like when you can pick up things so they don’t have to ask you to do the same things every day because essentially it’s routine and the same thing every day. Anyways, there’s a bit of a culture and race op going on but just be friendly to everyone okay? You’ll be fine. You’ll probably get some injuries along the way and blow your back out if you aren’t careful but you’ll be okay 👍🏽 

This is hard labour. The work is very simple, but very intense and very physically demanding. As you move around the airport, you'll notice that the other ramp crews from other companies have about 5-7 even more people. You will probably be working in a crew of 3 at ATS. 1 crew chief and 2 ramp agents. It is almost always understaffed at ATS, this will mean very little and few breaks for you. The pay is pretty good considering the simplicity of the job, but I cannot stress enough how physically demanding it is. This is a good job to make money in the short term.

Management aren't bad. They may seem terrible because of how short and few your breaks are. Don't hold it against them. Some of the supervisors are great guys. They really get stuck in to help you out when you need it. I felt sorry for them at times. They probably got no breaks at all.

There many opportunities to get promoted from a ramp agent to a crew chief. Once you have an understanding of how procedures work, and how bags are organized, and how to prioritize tasks, you will start to understand how crew chiefs do it. Just pay attention to your crew chief. There will be times where you think crew chiefs have it easier. THEY DON'T. I've been there. It's more work.

Hardest parts:
You're dead tired at the end of the day.
You work outside rain or shine. Freezing cold or burning hot.
No/short/few breaks.

Best parts:
You can make good friends here.
Good pay for a very simple job.
Can always have work. Overtime is usually offered.

After being trained for 7 days, we were thrown onto the ramp. Left alone without escorts at all times and not knowing the proper rules. The HR sucks and Management is even worse. The company did not care whether we got out security clearance or not. They don't even have a punch clock that works, which means the hours go based on whatever the manager says. Even signing in on the designated 'sign-in' sheet doesn't matter. They will not pay you for work you do, even if you stay overtime, they pay you regular. 150 bucks deducted for uniform 40 for parking. No uniform received and no PPE. You are paid 10.51 and if you are new, they abuse you. You are made to work harder than everyone else and YOU WILL NOT GET PAID properly. 

HR is slack and the payroll guy is a complete waste. Neither can do their jobs, they cry about how tough their job is. 

Stay clear of ATS, they don't have benefits and will not have them in the near future. People have been seen signing in, not working and signing out. Everyone sleeps on the job and if you need a hand, only a few people are willing to help out.

NO ROOM FOR ADVANCEMENT! They say you can, but really, you cannot. The next step up is 11 bucks, which you become a lead. At Air Canada, the same position gets you more than double (26 bucks as a lead). More responsibility for minimal raise.

A typical day: you walk in and are usually immediately hurried to your first flight with not enough working equipment to achieve success, if you’re a quiet employee that keeps there head down you will not be worked to the bone but you will sell your soul for this.  It’s interesting to work within aviation you get to see how truly terrifying it is. Management has no regard for your safety, it’s entirely a numbers game. Hurry hurry hurry there’s deadlines to meet and you will be berated for not meeting these deadlines. The hardest part of the job is feeling like an empty husk of a human when you go home even with more than 3 cans of energy drink coursing through your veins and a rage even the gods could not muster. You will be demanded to stay for OT and you will not be able to deny it. You will work until you collapse (it’s happened before). The most enjoyable part is you either succumb to your depression or you survive as a dementor with back problems. 

- overworked, underpaid, and un-valued.
- work can be fun as long as you work with other good ramp agents.
- equipment are always either tagged or under repair, therefore you end up having blamed for delays. 
- management is lead by a dictator, on which she gives preferential treatment to whom she like. This is also true with some managers in the company, who either sits on their dm cars and pretend to do something, or stare at her computer and have lots of coffee breaks. 
- you'll work with a terrible, ill-mannered morning bagroom lead, so ill-mannered, that management doesn't even care if you complain about her and is also giving her preferential treatment. 
- management will try to find something to get you fired.
- very odd discipline points system, i.e you get a point on your record for callling-in sick, in which they could use against you at any time.
- really nice HR lady, but you could feel her hands are tied. 
- there are many replacements available, so don't expect to be valued in the company, as there are out-of-high school students that are willing to replace you. 
- expect to provide your own gear as company provided gear, such as jackets and gloves, are sub-par and inadequate...especially during winter time.

Working with a handling company that must balance multiple contracts there is always job insecurity, airlines like a customer must always be satisfied with management and employee performance. Airline employees like myself deal with all types of people in various scenarios. Travel is such a stressful event for many especially those inexperienced travellers whom are often overwhelmed with the reality of it. Daily we encounter passengers who do not have sufficient documentation to travel, expired documents, overbooked flights, delays, cancellations, misconnections and security breaches. In a fast paced environment where every minute counts although stressful we are always guaranteed something new. Each day offers different learning experiences and challenges, it is never a dull moment. In a lead position I must not only oversee and assign the positions of my coworkers but I am the one who is consulted in case of system failures or passenger complaints. Our Toronto team is very enthusiastic and hard working always putting forward there best efforts and that helps to facilitate our entire operation.

Nice place to work if you are passionated by aviation, not very concerned about money, and ready to lift heavy bags despite rain, snow, hail, wind, heat, very cold...

Advantages:
- easy to get hired as a ramp agent, and then to evolve to crew chief due to high turn over
- high security standards on the job (compared to other handling companies)
- Westjet benefits after 3 months
- various shifts in part or full time to fit your schedule
- easy shifts trading
- 'paid' workout as duties are mainly physical
- training provided all along the career with possibility to be signed off on a variety of equipments / vehicles / procedures (marshalling, towing, water servicing etc.)

Disadvantages:
- very low wage (just above the minimum)
- hard and physical job (stacking bags in the pits with low clearance, working on apron whatever the weather conditions)
- only 1 manager seems to have human qualities and care about the employees, others will be either condescendant or yell at you for any reason
- Union will not help you in case of disagreement, despite the 35$ biweekly deducted from salary

Employees are not given the tools to succeed, as they are forced to go from one plane to the next with little to no time to plan things out. Employees have offload and onload heavy flights continually throughout the day, without hardly any rest between. And almost every heavy flight doesn't have anywhere near enough people helping out, so it's extremely difficult for crews to have good on time performance, while also staying safe. Since the Westjet operation first started management has maintained a bare-minimum workforce, instead of having enough people to allow for a smooth and relatively stress-free operation.

Overall management really underappreciates all the hard work everyone does on a daily basis,  and overall they seem clueless as to the needs of the operation. 

Scheduling is poor at best. Employees are forced to stay past the end of their shift on nights, and a ton of AM employees have to work split-shifts. 

The one upside to the job is the people. Most of the people working there are really kind and friendly people. Even though almost everyone is put under an immense amount of pressure.

For most of my 5 years at ATS as part of the ground operations, i was a Crew Chief and spent a year as a Supervisor. When i started at the company i was almost instantly made a crew lead with minimal training for the job at hand, even worse is when i became a supervisor and got thrown into the Christmas season with next to no training, a skeleton crew, who half of which didn't usually show up and would have to work overtime on my 13 hour shifts (3pm to 430am), because the morning guys wouldn't show up a considerable amount as well. Ramp manager spent money on overpriced equipment we didn't need or have much use for. There were a few guys i enjoyed working with, but for the most part it was 18 to 20 somethings and a few older guys, that were in school for something aviation related or got hired and fell into such a deep depression by working there they became a husk of their former selves, then there were a few guys who did it as a side gig or for exercise. overall, I should`ve left a lot sooner.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Baggage handler 7 salaries reported	$40.34 per hour
Passenger service agent 20 salaries reported	$18.64 per hour
Ground support equipment mechanic 1 salary reported	$29.75 per hour
Customer service representative 3 salaries reported	$16.67 per hour
Crew supervisor 3 salaries reported	$19.82 per hour

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