BMM389EC
14th Oct 2001, 17:53
Was just wondering if anyone had any info on when SAA might start hiring again. The Sep 11 attacks do seem to have affected them, any talk of retrenchments or furloughs? If not, any idea if they might be hiring again in the new year. What also of the new long haul fleet. That seems to have gone very quiet.
skyvan
15th Oct 2001, 13:56
There is a general employment embargo at SAA at the moment. The last pilot intake will be the November course. Having said that, once the new long range fleet numbers are decided, and taking into account the mandatory retirements coming up, there may well be a lull of about 6-9months in pilot recruitment.
The presentations by Airbus and Boeing will be given before the end of this month, with a decision being made public in January. I believe that initially, the planned start date of the new aircraft was July 2002, but with so many aircraft now available at short notice, it may be brought forward, if the crews can be trained in time.
As for furloughs, we are already stretched quite tight, thank you very much. If anyone is to go, it will be the contracted in pilots, then there will be some tough negotiations with SAAPA as to who will go first. I have to admit that unless the longhaul is to be seriously scaled down, I cannot see any retrenchments or furloughs on the cards.
Don't forget that a lot of our routes have seen very little impact of the attacks, it's only really the US and European routes that have taken a knock. We may have to scale back some activities there, but that can only be shortrange planning. A lot of companies are using the attacks as an excuse for trimming back, instead of being honest and saying that they were planning to scale back due to the recession which is starting to be felt.