Hong Kong Airlines (HKA)

[flyer25]

Update to HKA Schedule

In a previous post, I spoke about the dreaded STBY days at HKA that require you to be tethered to your phone & your living room for 8 hours without pay. Then the company announced it would pay peanuts for those 8 hours amounting to about $10-20$ USD per hour. Well, HKA being HKA a creative airline that likes to give with one hand and take 2 things from you with the other. As HKA decided to pay for STBY days they realised that if you had 11-12 days of STBYs on a pilot's schedule they would boost everyones income each month by potentially $1000 USD to $2000 depending on the seat you occupied. So, the genius's instituted what are called "O" days. Optional off days, so essentially you can be given 12 days of STBYs which at the companies discretion can be converted to "O" days. This prevents them from having to pay you the pilot for the STBY days. However, the problem with this is that they can convert your "O" day into "STBY" days the evening before.

Gents and ladies, you just can't make this stuff up. Again, keep in mind that HKA belongs to the Hainan Group one of the wealthiest companies in China.

But as I have said before, if you need a job, I would certainly not be the one to tell you not to take it on the chin for a while with HKA to get a few type ratings potentially and flight time while you figure a few things out other career options. They are really ramping up the the A350 pipeline so it's another type rating you can have at HKA. However, internally, they have created requirements for you to be accepted to CCQ[Correction this will be a transition/difference course of about 2-3 weeks the last I heard] to the A350. Unless you are a DEC or DEFO on the A350 [Correction there are currently no DECs or DEFO to the A350 as the aircraft is not on property. However, the company does have DEC and DEFO to the A320/330], you will need a few years at the company to move up to the A350. But the A350 will not initially go straight to long haul flying since it has a break in period before be able to get approval from the HKCAD to fly long haul with the company. [I am almost sure the company will accept DECs and DEFOs when the A350 is on property. I will keep you posted]