What are peoples opinions about trying for a 25+ year career here? I'm American and I've lived in Taiwan before (not as a pilot). My fiance is Taiwanese and would prefer to live in Taiwan. I understand it could be an awful long time to upgrade but the rates posted even for FOs are big money in Taiwan considering the average person there doesn't make much more than $1000 US a month. The rates suck overall for 747 pilots, but if you live there at least semi-native you can live pretty darn well on FO pay. I truly liked living there and while I may very well die of lung cancer from the pollution I would love to be a pilot in Taiwan. I speak some Mandarin and would definitely work towards fluency. Does anyone think a foreigner could have a full career there or do you think they will be fazed out as enough locals gain enough experience?
JTF:
A very good question. Before I answer though, a little about myself to show you how similar we may or may not be. I am an American and have lived in Taiwan before ( as a pilot ). I'm married to a Taiwanese ( congratulations, by the way ) and my wife would also prefer to live in Taiwan.
While the pay of an F.O. at China Airlines is high in relation to the normal worker bees in Taiwan, it would still be a struggle to make a comfortable life in Taipei. I am going to assume that you would want to buy a place to live in. A three bedroom apartment downtown Taipei will run you well over $300,000 for the most basic in a crummy area to well over $500,000 for a decent one in a decent area. You could choose to buy out near the airport for much less, but that has it's drawbacks when it comes to shopping, schooling, going out, etc.
On the subject of schooling. Are you planning on having children ? Do you want to educate them at local schools where rote memorization is stressed over creativity and the normal western style of education, or would you want to send them to the Taipei American School ? Take a look at the fees for the Taipei American School. Your $5000 per month salary just might cover 2 kids at TAS
That is just the lifestyle stuff. On to the career question. This is much more difficult to answer. When I worked there ( at FAT ) they promised us that we could stay as long as we liked. Then the Asian Economic Crisis happened and the NT Dollar devalued and in the blink of an eye that promise wasn't honored. The President of FAT at the time was none other than Lee Yun Ling, now President of CAL. He's a nice guy but the big money people who put him there tell him what to do when it comes to budgetary things like expat pilots. When he retires he could very well be replaced by Chen May Wen, who is the current President of FAT and a complete jerk. He hates expats and I guarantee he will try to get rid of them.
The only thing that solidifies the expat position in Taiwan, and especially at CAL, is the safety factor. As long as CAL doesn't prang an airplane they will look to replace the expats with locals. If, god forbid, they prang another one then that actually provides job security to the expats. Provided, of course, that it isn't an expat that prangs it in.
I'm not sure where you are in your career, but the advice I always give is to never go to Taiwan unless you are going as a Captain. Life as an F.O. would be unbearable. I've seen how the local Captains, especially the ex-military pilots, treat their F.O.s and I would never tolerate that kind of treatment. Of course this was at FAT and not CAL so maybe it is better at CAL.
All that said, it is a personal decision as to what you can tolerate and how much you want to live and work in Taiwan. FAT had a Vietnamese pilot, very senior 757 Captain, who left Vietnam after the war and ended up in Taiwan. He learned to read, write, and speak Mandarin and was on local terms at FAT.
Hope this helps,
TP