Originally Posted by
kungfu panda
I don't think that you guys really understand what Riyadh Air is about. The vast majority of Pilots at Riyadh air will be Saudi. Vision 2030 while being largely about moving away from reliance on Oil and moving towards other industries like tourism, is also about Saudiisation. The Saudi's do not want Riyadh Air to be another Emirates, full of Expat crew. Saudi Arabia has a very young and rapidly growing population with about 12% unemployment. Projects like Riyadh air are designed to provide high quality jobs to young Saudi's.
They will take the foreign Pilots they need but will replace them with Saudi's as fast as possible.
This is exactly what's happened at Saudia. 5 years ago Saudia had 500+ Expat Pilots, now it's down to around 100 or less. The Saudi government sends thousands of young people to the United States to do Aviation related degrees, puts them through the US ATP and returns them to Saudi Arabia to become First Officers.
There will be a short golden period where experienced Captains can make a good amount of money with Riyadh Air before retirement. But everyone dreaming of a great Career, commuting etc with Riyadh Air is doing just that - dreaming.
One might argue that this has been EK’s vision long term too, localisation that is. But we are still all here nearly 40 years later 🤷🏼♂️