SIA and Scandinavian Airlines, SAS, through Lagarhus Aviation Consulting, are apparently collaborating in a deal whereby excess pilots from SAS would be given a 4 year contract with SIA at fairly good wages and benefits, while remaining on the SAS seniority list during this leave of absence. The interest among SAS pilots is very large, due primarily to the fact that very few know about "pprune" and even fewer have read this thread, unfortunately. 100's of pilots are showing up for scheduled SIA information meetings around Scandinavia. The high interest is understandable given the fact that SAS is fast going the way of Sabena and SwissAir, that is, towards oblivion (What is it with airlines begining with "S"???)
The deal is as follows:
Captains pay of roughly US$9400/month
FO pay US$6300/month
Housing allowance, for both Cpt and FO, US$1500/month
Per diem roughly US$1200/month
Child education allowance
NO PENSION PAY IN, but SAS will pay this until the end of 2006.
Sounds pretty good, but the training bond and dreaded bank guarentee is still required.
For a Scandinavian pilot suffering under the weight of the worlds highest taxes (between 60 and 75% tax expense on your total wage) the tax rate in SIN is very appealing.
And with a SAS CEO and management apparently well schooled in the ways of SIA's armchair generals, many SAS pilots want nothing more than to get away.
I believe SIA can expect at least 100 well trained and experienced SAS pilots taking their offer. We'll see in a month or so.
Rather Be Sailing
