Freightboss: Brilliant reply I owe you beers !
Lets clear the rumour up right away. Solenta lost a lot of great crew, that is the bad news. The good news is that these guys were lost to positions far greater than what we can offer i.e. the Jet market but we working on this. The guys went to :
Gulf Air
UK Low cost Airline ???
MK
Comair
SAA
One Time
Safair
We actually pad ourselves on the back as we must be doing something right the okes that leave do so for excellent oppertunities so our Bangkok sim training must be recognised.
We whish all these guys only the best with there future careers.
We are at the moment on a serious employment drive but unfortunatly are only looking at direct entry P1 and P2. We have 3 positions each available. The reason for the direct entry is due to our loss there is no time for training guys up in BKK and we need the experience. In Jan next year we will train 2 more guys.
The company policy is to upgarde within first and then to look outside, most crew came from low time C208 pilots to ATR crew. Unfortunatly there are guys that have plenty experience but no ATP, we brun to upgrade them but can not at the moment. So for the comment that we upgrade inexperienced crew, you have no idea what you talking about.
We are not the operator that do 30 min conversions at FALA in similar type as the ATR with no sim training. We also do send our guys to BKK to get sim training, most guys flying the ATR that left to fly similar aircraft are not even current anymore as these companies prefer not to send these guys to the sim.
The crew that get upgraded are guys that we have confidence in and that meet the requirements. Upgrades gets done in the BKK sim by rated instructors. Anyone welcome to join for a sim session at own cost.
We thank the guys and girls that stay with us, they are all excellent individuals.
And as a last thought: Any other contract company out there that in the past two years gave the crew increases. 7% this year not wow but at least we try to keep up.
Have fun !!!