Originally Posted by
cessnapete
As an observer from afar why do Airlines out East/ Australasia employ partially trained S/Os? In BA for example all new hire or cadet pilots are trained from the start as fully qualified to operate as P2 on two crew operations. All modern jets are two crew ops. Pilots recruited onto large jets ie 777/744 and the like obviously need more previous experience on joining. (2000 total. 500 jet time)
All then are fully operational and on augmented crews share out the landings as required.
The only time “ cruise only” happen when a training backlog occurred on A380 and caused a few months delay obtaining the 6 route trading landings required to operate as P2.
Several reasons. Firstly, lots of cx operations are >2 crew medium and long haul. That means you need cruise relief. May as well have a sh!t kicker on half the pay of operating crew to do the cruise work. Secondly, giving a P2X rating means the licence is effectively worthless in the real world, and is a way of preventing the Second officer from being appealing to other carriers.