Jarops,
In my opinion people are not leaving Emirates, because as far as expat jobs go, Emirates is average. It is probably better to be here than Singapore, and it is probably better to be here than in Hong Kong. However I am not a big fan of the far east so I have not realy bothered looking in to the whole package on offer by Cathay, Singapore, or Dragonair. Do not forget that moving family, children and disrupting schooling is not ideal for any one. My circle of friends, and my self included are waiting for interviews back home in the UK from Virgin and BA. I do not see the point in leaving Emirates and going back to EZ, or JET2 etc, just to bail ship because Emirates is not what it appears to be. I made the mistake once in leaving too quickly to join the shining ship of Emirates, so this time I am waiting my turn to join the airline that I realy want. There are those though, not many, who have had enough and are leaving for the likes of EZ or RYR. Most of the guys who do not consider the European market, either do not have jar licences, and or they do not have European passports. There are not many places to go from here as you can see if you do not have the fortune of holding the right passport and or the right licence. The GCAA licence is probably a great licence to show your grand children, but I do not think it would get you any jobs. This place realy brings out the side of people you would not see in other civilized places because there are no rules that must be followed. Rules are here to protect the company, and to be changed if they do not suit the company at any time. If circumstances change, brilliant management just changes the rules, rather than finding solutions around the problem. Look at TCAS for example. He comes from BA, yet at his age, and with the money that he has made and a full pension from BA he still changed quickly to adapt to Emirates standards. He sits there as our VPFO and still aproves of roster patterns that knows are illegal by any CAA, GCAA, ICAO standard. He does not have the character to even care about his reputation. Most of upper management look at the bottom line which is bonuses in their pockets, and when they leave to go back from where they came from they will have a "golden " lining in their pockets, while us flying will have dirhams in our pockets. No one seems to care that if a bird hits the ground with punters on board because of crew fatigue they will all be accountable and responsible for peoples lives. But here in Emirates we just look at the next days problems, and we will all, FO, when no longer needed. The airline is run on autopilot, and all of us working here including upper management are just hanging on for the ride as long as it lasts, or until such time we find something better.
Finaly one last comment, just because there are no better solutions out there for some pilots does not mean that Emirates is the airline of choice, nor does a package become good when compared with locost, airlines going out of business, downsizing, or african airlines excluding SA of course. I am sure you would not even consider coming here if your airline was doing fine. That is how you measure in my books the airline of choice, would you leave to join if everything is ok back home? If not then Emirates is an airline of temporary solution...
Emirates is treating us like this today when they are expanding and making profits. I hate to be around and see what is coming our way when we stop the expansion or lose money.....
Keep discovering.....