Transition upgrades no more?? (EK)

[donpizmeov]

IXNAT,

There are plenty of guys that joined prior to July 2003 (thats when the DEC thing raised its head again) that have been eligible for command ( by that I mean they have been here for the period of time , and have the hours required for a command as described by the EK FOM) that have yet to be offered a command course. These guys were told by one of the grown ups at a pilots meeting when the DEC option was announced, that not one of them would be disadvantaged. Well come the end of this year, some of these guys will be disadvantaged by over 12 months. So if DECs were not hired, these guys would get the seat change, more FOs would be hired and the expansion would continue. There was a period a few years ago when 8 more of Laura Ashley's Quadro Puffs arrived at short notice that DECs were needed, however all deliveries now have been known about for years, and we have lotsa guys waiting to take there left hand seats. Its also interesting to note that the A346s and most of the A380 that were planned for next year are not coming. But still DECs are recruited. Its purely to save $s and has nothing to do with expansion.

All the guys that have joined post Jul 2003 have known that EK now hires DECs, and made their decision to join with this knowledge.

The hiring of DECs is here to stay. The FOs that joined between 2001 and Jul 2003 have been screwed by this, and they have been lied to many times by the EK grownups over the whole matter. I totally understand why they feel peeved by the way they have been mistreated.

Those FOs that have joined after this date, knew that they would see their command course be determined by the availablity of DECs to fill the seats. I don't think this policy is right, but at least they got to make an informed decision.

Now about your question re taking a UAE nationals job, and comparing it to the hire of DECs. I think there is one major difference between the two. EK are constantly hiring every National that shows an interest and had the aptitude. They even pay for all their training to make sure they can get enough of them. So they are not being displaced by an EXPAT. The fact is, there are not enough of them, but all those that want the job are getting the job. However, at the moment, we have lotsa FOs that have what the company has deemed is required to be eligible for a command course, yet they are not on these courses because of DECs. I hope you can see the difference.

Don