I was in India 3 months ago and paid my own way there. I was not going to sign onto any deal until I saw for myself what the situation was. Arriving at Mumbai and expecting to be met by Jet Airways transport to take me to my hotel. ( the hotel had not been confirmed before I departed for India) transport fails to turn up and I am stuck at the airport wondering what the hell I was going to do. It was 10pm. The situation was sorted out by some friendly JA staff at the airport and was put into a 5 start hotel at the airport. The next day I was in the sim, which went well and the two check captains that I met there were friendly. It is worth noteing the ground transport was late picking me up for the sim and late taking me back to the hotel. The next day I waited for an interview which never came and the restricted location of the hotel became apparent when I wanted to go out for a meal. There is nothing around the airport and you are a long way from town. The hotel was very expensive and food became boring even after just a few days.
The interview never happened and I was sent my to see the tailor to get measured for my uniform and then of for a review of Jet Airways procedures.( I found out latter that if you pass the sim ride you have passed the interview as well)
By now I was starting to get a good idea of what I was going to be doing. Flying 6 days a week. Can’t drink leagly 18hrs before flying so you can see if you do the math its one day a week you can drink.(they also do random urine test as well) The airline won’t allow expats to fly up in the northern region so you are stuck doind Dehli and Hyderabad etc and that’s about it.
There was one very annoying item that I could not accept and that is the 737NG’s they have are the “screwed up” Southwest Layout. So after flying glass for 15 years I was going back on clocks and I vowed when I first went on glass years ago I would do anything to avoid going back to clocks. So JA was off my list I was unfortunately not going to fly in India. A pity because I was looking forward to the adventure. An attempt to get a job with AIX just wasn’t going to happen because of they are so unorganized, so it was back to my old job.
The pay for a Captain was okay at US $8,600.
Cheers Max
