Originally Posted by
WillieTheWimp
I get that the NJS guys are frothin for this A220 rating but you have to understand that it’s as useless as a B717 rating. The Airbus name is purely marketing; it’s about as Airbus as the 717 is Boeing. Where do you intend to take these A220 hours? With the majority destined for North America, an A220 rating will not do you too many favours. Otherwise in Europe, Air France/Air Baltic etc are getting some, but again, not much use to an Aussie.
Airbus A320/A330/A350 operators will not consider A220 hours as Airbus hours—if that’s what they are hoping for!
I can assure you that, with the exception of a minute few, the only ones “frothin” for the A220 are management. And none of the pilots who will fly them believe it’s an actual Airbus. The point is NJS need to find hundreds of pilots in a climate where hardly anyone turns up to Australian recruitment days anymore, even the traditional international imports are shunning the “lucky country” as they can simply stay at home nowadays and live better than we can. Your premise that moving OS is a leap of faith is correct but many have already done it in spite of the difficulties that come with the
initial move. The truth is the last EBA is still seen as an opportunistic ram raid by an out of touch IR regime and it will not be forgotten. As for taking an A220 endorsement, a few hundred hours and then leaving, there is merit in that if you already intend to go OS at any point because the US and Europe are slowly being flooded with this aircraft type. It’s immaterial whether it’s a “real” airbus when the world is going to have so many of them flying over the next several years. Besides, any endorsements that end up leaving for the US or Europe is just another expensive and time consuming training slot that the company will have to replace. Therefore, it makes sense to retain what they have by means of a liveable EBA and stop the outdated bull**** that will turn out to be a huge own goal.
PS, the days of the “type rated” application being the norm are pretty much over, these days an airline will take you with nothing. Yet another reason to value what they have as it will turn out to be cheaper than cancelling flights and parking jets due to training limitations.