"Italian stallion" At FZ you got places where flights are swapped and or sold, however do not plan on that being every month or very much if any at all, its not easy to give away flights to get extra days off unless ur willing to $$ for someone to take ur flights. Grabbing flights is however a different story IF you have any days off that you can uses which is rather limited.
Positives are the quick upgrade (If you get good scores on your OPC´s and LPC´s) relaxed atmosphere and great guys to fly with on a daily basis.
FO pay you top out at MAX 44.000AED. (thats flying 85-95hrs) and thats including everything. Captain around 55-60K at the MAX again flying high hours.
Living in Dubai, if your single you be more than able to save up some money on either salary, but having kids its a different story and at times a struggle to make ends meet on an FO salary if you got bills to pay back home such as a house in your home country.
Apart from your annual leave do not expect to go home during the month of flying, MAX you gonna see of days off blocks is 3-4 (this being if ur lucky) mostly you may get 2-3 days off in a row scattered out on ur roster.
Negatives are the rather high level of negativity, but us pilots tends to be rather negative no matter what job we have and I have to say FZ is one of the better companies I worked in when it comes to the flying. I find pretty much all the pilots very competent and professional but the grass is always greener on the other side. U work a lot but u do that in any companies, the night flying to crazy destinations are at times challenging but an experience in it self too.
Another one is the training, be prepared to study ur ass off, especially if you come NON-typed, training is limited and requires you to do more work than u ever done before (Believe me I am not joking)
When all is said is done, FZ is to me a good company, I would recommend my friends to come here, but would also be sure to explain to them that they need to study way more than they done before, the requirements here especially for the upgrade are crazy high. I would also tell them that if joining as an FO they have to suffer for a few years till the upgrade financially if they bring their family and kids with them.
Its crazy expensive to setup shop in the UAE, I personally spend 150.000AED just to get seattled in the beginning with housing fees, agency fees, furniture, car and so on, and it will take you time to recover that money. But overall im pretty happy and find the company to be safe and stable and with some fun flying at times too.
