... well, just to contribute my views ...
last week, we had a cometogether of pilots, as one of the F/Os was leavin after 4 years for "personal reasons" (most likely s'thing went wrong with his upgrade - so, don't take that for granted though!) - and gave us a higly appreciated farewell down at a nice S-Z Road Pub ....
What worries me, that during the casual talk, i realized, that more than half of the bunch of guys (mostly F/Os) are fairely unhappy here - especially due to their very low income at EK - which is somewhere araound 18.000 Dhm /equals 4.900 U$ only!! - which is definitily NOT enough to cope with the spiralling living costs here; most of them can't save a penny of their salaries, as they struggle to pay their mortgages/ installments etc. back home;
consequently, a good percentage of those guys are planning to leave, as soon as their bond is finshed, as there are definitivley more and more opportunities opening up in the "old world"- with about the same salary, but in a civilized and slavery-free society;
To sum it up: Yes, the conditions down here have definitively deteriorated over the last years, building sites, concrete and dirt all over the place - the Jumeira Beach road a dirty building site since month now, the only park in BurDubai - including the palms ! - "taken out", to give way to the new (much needed!) railway station ...
Thus means, even less greenery downtown, and the housing and living costs still spiralling upwards!
It's time to move on, if we don't get a significantly payrise soon(> 20 % is considered to be a MINIMUM to be expected to keep the folks on the run - like Ethihad - which m ight help to compensate the lower life quality down here at the sandpit; My CV is on my computer already
