Originally Posted by
Big Silver Spoon
Oh yes. Aviation in Asia and parts of Europe are shining beacons of light for how to crew and operate aeroplanes.
Yeah they are. I’d say the EU is a much harder environment than Australia. It isn’t just ILS to ILS. A lot of challenging approaches and ports (show me Australian airports that have risks like Skiathos or Madeira). A real winter with ice and snow to contend with, dozens of nations and cultures to work with and interact with with most not having English as a first language. And more congestion in the skies.
But airlines, both LCCs like Easyjet and Ryanair or legacies like BA or LH do it all with 200hr F/Os in the right seat of 180 seat jets, and then some carriers command after 4/5 years.
And we act as if this is something new to Australia, but the first Cadetships were run in this country in the early 60s. I’d guess that a quarter to a third of all Australian airline pilots today are products of some type of cadet or academy scheme.