Upgrades in Air Astana
As an expat if the intention is a quick upgrade Air Astana does not sound a true option. The "potential upgrade opportunity after 6 month" seen in every advertisement is just a decoy to attract experienced pilots looking for it, since they need it very much to fill their "stock".
No one is upgraded with less than 3 years, and even after such period you need to be lucky and patient enough to please them with their mindset to fly, with in general a poor CRM. Local pilots definitely don't like expat as they hate to speak English, the communications with cabin crew are mostly in Russian and you are mostly ignored as if you are not there.
The salary for locals is considerably lower than the expats, which feeds a cold and not friendly atmosphere as they are around 80% of total, it's like to say Air Astana needs you but they don't. And still after all these points you depend on the local instructors and examiners to be, after a long time, referred for an assessment, which is definitely not an easy thing. Just try to find out how many expats where upgraded along all this years and you will see the truth.
But the pilots' dissatisfaction is not a problem for them because they are always performing nonstop screenings every month for all fleets, and if you are not happy you are very welcome to leave because they always have a good stock to replace you. This way they can always have experienced FO's without further issues. Two positive things are firstly a not bad salary for the cost of living in Kazakhstan, which is low and the good maintenance kept in all fleets .
If you are looking for recency and/or really need a job it looks a good option, but if your goal is the the upgrade this can become a huge frustration and loss of a precious time.
Last edited by ylonaprog; 13th Sep 2018 at 12:32.
Reason: Missing some complements