Whoa!
Obviously, there is more than what meets the eye on the present situation in MAS.
Ok, we have known so far for a fact that nearly 10% of the locals have left within a period of 1 year to date.This number doesn't include the attrition rate of the expats (which are dynamic in any airline).
The present 'apparent' shortage of pilots were caused by the mismanagers (of Flight Operations, consisting of pilots themselves) duping the upper management & hoodwinking the DCAM through a period of 10 years.Now, the fruits of their labour have turned to bite them back very hard in their well licked posterior.This was a well executed plan, with a disregard for ICAO SARP's by nearly doubling the max hours per year limit (through the augmented crew operations) & was only stopped after MAS ops were pressured by 'external' forces.This practise is now being copied by other operators around the world who work hand in glove with their respectives CAA or DCA equivalent
Thanks a lot for that MAS
And we all think SQ was shrewd
This inflation of 'extra' man hours available, bolden the mismanagers to promise almost everything including the moon to their superiors, not to mention making all the managers scoring brownie points!
Obviously, all good things must come to an end, & the straw that broke the camel's back had been thrown ironically after the Camel was ousted & 'Doctorcon' was installed to stop the internal politicking of the ambitious management pilots (including a power crazed shortie) If you guys wanna stop me here, & say it sounds like the new Star Wars movie, well unfortunatley the storyline has a few parallels
The forces of good & evil battled it out....whooops wrong story
Well, after the dust settled & a new Boss was installed (both the new management & the SGMFO) things went downhill again for the pilots.Again it takes a pilot to screw a pilot, & these guys are desperate as their retirement age is coming up & they need to line up their nest.Again, promises were made.Hence the situation that the local pilots are in now.As all leave are being frozen to meet up with the demand of the new trailblazing routes & extra frequencies, the core issues of the locals work rule (the MoU) which is inclusive of the approved FTL limits (by DCAM) were dispensed to meet up with the new patterns.No new extra cadets were available to relief the manpower shortage as the mismanagers promised to their bosses that they will be able to absorb the requirements even when they earlier theatened the pilots of retrenchment when the financial crisis happened & again when the SARS epidemic took hold.To add salt to the gaping wound, the screws are tightened to squeeze what ever little perks that the pilots have to make MAS more 'cost efficient'.Push come to shove, some have made the move (including yours truly) as we had enough of this circus called MAS.
So currently, the bosses applied a 'smokescreen' to dupe the Joe public & more importantly,their superiors (even the Gov't, I believe) that the numerous flight retiming are caused by pilots leaving for the unexpected 'pull' factors of other airlines & not of their incompetencies.They also went on the offensive with a media coverage of the 'pilots greed' in asking for more money & boldly suggests that the pilots are 'blackmailing' them.The truth is they did it to themselves.
So guys, ask yourselves if you truly want to be part of this.Or would you rather wait a while till the issues are settled.As it is, my ex-colleagues do inform me that whatever happens, the pilot shortage will still remain for the short to medium term.Even with the 'apparent' 300 cadets coming in, they will all only be online in a period of 5 years (most optimistic planning at the current rate with no expansion!).
As for us 'traitors' (this term was used by the SGMFO in a meeting with the pilots) who made the excruciatingly painful decision to venture out for a better living for our family, we will always be a 'persona non grata' to MAS even after our unflinching & unwavering loyalty to MAS
In other words our bridges were burned the day we handed our resignation letters........
Unlike others in the professional industries (managers,CEO's etc) which are welcomed back to their former employers, pilots who work for vindictive airlines aren't accorded the same treatment.Sad, very sad indeed.
A word of caution to those who think that working in MAS through a contract agency would bypass some problems, it will unfortunately & effectively create more.Cases have happened to earlier contractees where their contract were not honoured & the agency couldn't (or is it wouldn't) do anything to 'rock the boat'.Again my sincere advice, be wary of 'strangers bearing gifts'