“Anyone get the feeling that these blokes should be represented by an association that has several decades of experience in this stuff? AIPA”
AIPA is half the reason mainline pilots are in such a pickle. Too much greed will eventually see you sidelined by a more realistic set of employment conditions.
“sitting somewhere for up to 4 days - because J* flies there only twice/week - is not conducive to family, friends or 1000 hours per year in stick pay.”
This may be true but jetstar are not going to change destination frequency just to suit the lifestyles of pilots. More importantly, how is more money going to improve the family life when sitting down route for “4 days”. It sux no matter what the income is.
A "credit hour system” is as outdated in airline flying as roster seniority and blanklines. The whole aim of jetstar is to ditch such inefficient garbage. Very few (if any) startup airlines use credit hours. Airlines are moving away from paying crew unless the engines are turning. Deal with it.
The reality is that there are tons of guys in asia and mid e knocking the door at jetstar down to get a job back in oz. The circumstances in oz changed the second the highly unionized ansett shutdown to be replaced by virgin. It seems the last people to realize this will be the pilots at qf.