Originally Posted by
Captain Spam Can
Sounds alike you enjoyed some great golden years at both ends of the flying time line. I feel the UK flying is fantastic and the companies are good but that little blue book can earn more money and be put out to better use outside the ‘comfort zone’.
What’s the latest with Saudi Airlines do they still pay big money and hire expats and where do you consider the latest golden goose is in the industry?
During & after the COVID pandemic they had a cull on the remaining expats. A lot of their Westerners left during that period. Some, but not many, moved to SRA on even better T’s & C’s than at Saudi Arabian Airlines. Some TCN’s remained at Saudi Arabian, mainly Egyptians, other native Middle Easterners as well as others from nearby Islamic countries, however management took the opportunity to give the T’s & C’s a good a bettering.
RIA is fundamental to the economic expansion model MBS has for the Kingdom and it’s an essential & integral constituent of the Kingdom’s economic growth model. When RIA starts to move into its stride, as an engine to drive economic growth, it’s going to throw the cat amongst the pigeons, aviation wise, because of how many experienced pilots it needs and also because how quickly they need them.
The main problem is that they hope to recruit, in large numbers, “quality” flight crew with a prestigious and quality aviation pedigree, particularly for their wide bodied, long haul fleet. The trouble is there’s not too many flight crew of that quality around on the market-particularly when you remove the yanks from the equation. That’ll be the case because the yanks national conditions are already so good that they’ll not be attracted to the Middle East. That only leaves “poaching” as the only viable way to attract the amount of crews they will require. The main “bait” when poaching is improved T’s & C’s, particularly dosh in the trouser pockets. That’s when the Saudis step into their stride. Unlike most airlines, those Saudis have very deep pockets and they don’t have to reach too far into them to pull out a good handful of cash. Emirates, Etihad & Qatar can’t compete with that but they’ll try to, initially at least, that’ll start a short pay skirmish until the ME3 throw in the gauntlet. Even then, RIA will still have to poach. That’ll mean having to dig deeper into the pockets to attract expats from Europe and the UK. I’m assuming you can figure the story out for yourself from there onwards…