For anyone looking for a place to work, I thought you might like some updated information on China Airlines. I was at a fleet meeting yesterday and saw a few people in various departments who encouraged me to make it known that China Airlines needs pilots primarily 744 First Officers and Cruise Captains. They'll need A330 people in 2004 when deliveries start.
Now before some of my friends and best critics jump up and down <bg>, I don't win a toaster or a blender for anybody that comes here!!! Many of us like CAL and accept it and obviously there are some unhappy people too. Just like any airline. But I think that most of us here would like good people to come here to Taipei and start with CAL. If you get people here that will make it better,it will get better.
This is all public information really,but CAL is getting 3 more airplanes in 2003, (doing this from memory),9 in 2004, 8 in 2005, and 2 in 2006. Only 2 747F (rope starts) are being phased out shortly. There are a combination of 747-400 Freighters, 747-400 Pax airplanes, 12 A330s starting June,2004,one A340 and a 737-800 next month.
They are interviewing a number of Singapore guys in the next month and then interviews begin again with others that I have talked to. It appears they are booking interviews about 2-3 months out. The process seems to take 4 days plus travel time. The physical is extensive compared to other countries and companies.
The next development is that apparently a hurdle has been removed to allow people to upgrade to Captain/Command based on performance and proficiency rather than some fixed period of time. I remember there were a few people who didn't want to start as F/O or Cruise Captain. But even if you do and a lot of my friends did, there is no hurdle or restriction to upgrading now once you and CAL think you are ready. To me,this is a major step and improvement.
I saw from the website of
www.china-airlines.com that CAL has one of the world's youngest fleets of 5.9 years and that will go lower when the 2 old Freighters are parked.
China may also change their basing policy in the near future. It is not official and being actively discussed. Right now, only Captains are based outside of Taiwan. I have noticed that the pay is better than many places in the world.It is not back to where it was,but most airlines aren't either. Also in income tax is lower than many places in the world. One thing I found interesting is that there is a housing allowance and transportation costs can be zero. They pick one up in a small bus and then take you to the major international airport from the headquarters in downtown Taipei. Of course, you could be brave enough to try a motorscooter in TPE but this is a dangerous sport. All I have is a bus card for my own travel.
Anyway, I thought anybody looking for a job might like to know of these developments.
I noted recently that my old Airline in the U.S. continues to lose money at record rates and has continued to furlough pilots. There are over 100 being furloughed in December and there appears to be no end in sight.
JIM