Originally Posted by
Ollie Onion
This is all a load of bollocks, there is no reason why you should recruit a 'jet' guy over a 'turboprop' guy. They are both capable of being trained, the turboprop guy should probably get preference since they have 'company time' and there should be some reward for being in the system. However, from Air NZ's point of view when there is a big short term demand for recruitment and slotting in external candidates create less disruption and training demand then they will do that. Never believe any assurances from management.
No one should get any “preference”. I’ve said it a thousand times, many Kiwi pilots were victims of what decade they were born and/or what year they got a CPL... so we should reward the 25 year old ATR Captain because they were fortunate enough to go through during a wave?
Not to mention, the company has had to review the requirements for A320 Commands as former regional Pilots who sat as SO’s for 6 years have seniority for commands with no Jet experience. They don’t have that problem with the externals who have X thousand Jet hours already, including on type.
-edit-
Also, there has
always been a reward for regional pilots over externals. The minimum requirements are lower for regionals than externals and they keep their regional DOJ&Staff number for associated benefits. Yes, there have been hiring bans on internals due to numbers, but there have also been hiring bans on externals aswell... something regional pilots forget, they also seem to forget all their colleagues hired into Jet during the waves before it stopped.
When you look at the Air NZ Seniority list, those with high seniority for their age are often ex regional while those with low seniority for their age/experience are often externals.