Originally Posted by
Luray
Is it a negotiable requirement to have 500 hours on jet aircraft? I flew turboprop above 20t
no requirement is negotiable, they are strict on that.
Currently lots of pilots looking for ways out with applications in other airlines:
About 40 Locals currently waiting for training slots at starlux and others with greencards already going to interviews in the US.
All young expats that joined as first officers in the past 5 years are already applying for other airlines in Dubai, Doha, Abu D, bahrain, etc. Reasons below:
- Lowest salary (5500 usd after tax) compared to all other similar jobs (last significant raise in 2015, the 2023 raise was 2%, zero overtime means no extra money. lowest per diem in the market at 3.3USD per hour.
- Commuting contract falling behind all other commuting contracts with 0 travel days and the scheduler assigning flight duties to arrive in TPE late night the day before your first BDO or stby Duties until 11PM so pilot has to travel during his BDO not even a night before losing a day in TPE.
- Duties after BDOs scheduled at first hour in the morning so the pilot has to return a day earlier to TPE. for somebody in europe out of 8 Days they lose about 3 days commuting. Seems this is happening to 77 FOs but not on other fleets.
- Schedule is about 60h a month with a week worth of stbys and DOs in between (max 2 + 8 BDOs = 10 Days of a month never together).
- locals get from 10 to 11 days of a month and get shorter layovers so they're less time away from home while expats get assigned longer patterns and currently with the delays of over 12h in freighter flights due massive resignation of ground staff due low wages.
In 2019 there was a cabin crew strike due low wages, now in 2022/23 ground staff resigning for the same reason and pilots looking for jobs somewhere else. On the good side is this opens positions for new guys that will benefit from the airline like pilots from thailand or malasia.