Here’s the deal,
Since many people have asked me for info I decided to give a lowdown of what this company’s about. I’ll divide it in to several sections, let’s go.
Company:
- AAI is a ACMI and CMI operator that does lots of work for several freight forwarders and airlines like Saudi and/or Magma. In these times mostly cargo flying 747-400f and -bcf’s and since june Hajj flts in and out of Saudi Arabia.
- you will NOT be employed by AAI. You will just be a contractor that provides your services to AAI, nothing more and nothing less.
- AAI will provide you with a company ipad, uniform AAI id and access to their intranet. That is the only connection there is between you and AAI.
- Your taxes, insurances, pension should be handled by yourself, AAI has nothing to do with this.
- It sounds a little tough but the rules of the game are quite clear, you’re not employed by them unlike the Icelandic crewmembers that do have a proper collective bargaining agreement and have a fixed salary and a very very very nice daily allowance(3 times yours :-) ). But hey it’s their airline.
- Payment is per day of work. When you’re not rostered you don’t get paid. If you’re sick at home, you do NOT get paid, you go on vacation you do NOT get paid. Remember AAI does not see you as its employee nor its responsibility so you’re on your own on that one.
Rostering:
- AAI prefers long rotations. So most people do 3-4 weeks on and 2 weeks off but there r also many that do more weeks of work and less at home. Remember, the only way to earn money is by working. There seems to be a new contract out there doing 21/14 and 24/12.
- In the summer period you have to be available 75% of the time, this one is due to the hajj in Saudi Arabia. Which basically means the whole of june and july, maybe a couple of days off but they preferably want you to be fully available during that time.
- I repeat, you are not an employee of AAI and they decide if they want you to work or not. So for instance it just happens often that during a rotation they don’t have flights for you so they’ll just send you home and you’ll obviously lose pay. Not their responsibility you’re not their employee, you just fly whenever they need you.
- Via the company site you can request the days you’re available for work and they’ll decide how or if they can assign you any work during your available days.
- You can be rostered from anywhere and end up anywhere there are no restrictions on where to go. LGG and FRA are used as bases in Europe at this time, most flights start and end from there.
- Expect to work very long hours and going in to discretion is what they expect from you, needless to say it’s your decision at the end.
- They will go the extra mile to avoid you from achieving overtime, it’s rosterings number 1 priority, so don’t be surprised when flights are removed, it’s not personal but simple business.
Operation:
- This is a ACMI operation for several companies and AAI flies to anywhere it needs to go.
- Training is of an average standard, I’ve seen better and/or much better training but hey this works. Company has a sim in lhr that’s quite old but it does the job.
- Flt procedures are quite outdated, not much thought has been put in the why’s and how’s but it’s more of a “these are the procedures we’ve got and these we shall use” kind of mentality. Remember AAI is not a Lufthansa /BA / United that pour unlimited funds in training. It’s a small operator.
- There is no way to sugarcoat this one but the aircraft are extremely old. Average age of the machines is about 24 years. So expect loads of snags all the time, the aircraft run continuously so barely any time to fix snags on the aircraft.
- The maintenance is ok, remember, this is not Lufthansa technik or KLM maintenance.
- Flying is super fun, you get to go to so many destinations. It’s really nice if you’re in to plain flying.
- Coworkers are great, very relaxed pilot body, contractors and Icelanders both. No pretentious nonsense, everyone wants to get the job done.
Current affairs july 2022
- The hajj and umrah passenger flts have started and they’re flying from JED base to Indonesia and several cities in North Africa taking people back and forth to Jed.
- Some extra freighters are expected but also many other machines off to c-checks so no massive net increase of a/c.
- F/o recruitments are now primarily for the holding pool, course dates are sporadically announced.
- At this time there are enough F/o’s so chances are that after the hajj people will get limited flying up untill the october/november freighter push. .
- They need more commanders and prefer recruiting non type rated guys, not many type rated 747 jockeys out there anymore.
- No internal promotions to captaincy or F/o this year, hiring non type rated guys on new contracts is the way to go.
All in all a fun and simple company. Absolutely not a career airline but a great place to gain loads of experience for the future. I obviously keep repeating that you won’t be employed by AAI because they’ll sure show you that when you’re here,lol.
Remember it’s not personal, but pure business.
Good Luck to all of you.