Gulf nationals get priority in Qatar Air. True?

[z.khalid]

Hello all.

I've applied to Qatar Air for the fast track S/O.
I've heard that GCC nationals should get priority over others at QA.

Friend of mine(who works at QA) told me they'd take a GCC fresh graduate over a non GCC national that applied for a S/O even with turboprop hours.
Adding the fact that they both need to be type rated.

Not sure how much of this is true, but I would appreciate some insight.

Thank you all.

[Panama Jack]

Sure, why not? I would think that a GCC national is more likely to stay long-term at QR over a European or American pilot who has options to return "back home" and may be prone to "homesickness" after a few years. Consider the backdrop of QR having a lot of turn-over. Pilots from other GCC countries have the luxury of easily returning to their home country during a couple of days off to maintain their social circle and family obligations there because of short travel time, great frequency and relatively low-cost of travel.

It would be interesting to see statistics on how long the "average" non-GCC expat pilot remains at QR.

[Gulfstreamaviator]

The future of world aviation is not just in the hands of the expats...

Expats must try as hard as possble to ensure that locals, (in whatever country) assuming that they have the base skills, and mind set to become professional in their selected field.

As expats, we might not like the idea that a local, gets preferental treatment, but this is an acceptable back lash of the localisation programme.

Standing by for incoming....>

glf