Originally Posted by
dingodyle
It's 7 years currently. That's 7 years from completed training and checked to line.
How it will change is anyone's guess, but it's trending to increase; training capacity is reducing with people leaving (especially trainers) with years to return to "normal" planned, but much more importantly the company has much higher incentive to keep people in Second Officer rank. The company is restructuring to fly 2x SO on long haul from 1x SO, so logically they need double the SOs and half the FOs. The evidence is that the 5 year maximum SO requiment is now gone. Plus SOs get paid less, and it's always cheaper and faster to train a direct hire a FO who skips the que.
There is no longer a 5 year maximum limit.
The realistic career prospect for a new cadet is, unfortunately, not to expect
any upgrade once online as an SO.