Divinehover - you said "SAA pilot salaries are not where they are due to good luck. They applied a mutually aggreed apon formula based on various domestic and international carriers (yes we are an international carrier unlike the rest of you).
Nationwide is also intercontinental, if thats what you mean, plenty of cross-border, hence international carriers in SA.We fly further, longer,
Plenty of domestic pilots in SA would like a change and fly long-haul.in bigger, more advanced aircraft
Plenty of them would take a pay cut to fly better equipment, too. And plenty would prefer staying in five-star hotels in civilised places like Paris and London rather than African hotels in Livingstone or Luanda.than the rest of the locals. We get paid more because we are the standard in this country. Our pilot group as a whole is the most experienced and professional this continent has.
Plenty of locals with the required experience would do an SAA pilots job for nearly half the SAA salary. Plenty of new RDP pilots at SAA with far less experience than a lot of the local guys. As for the 'difficulty in replacing big jet pilots, break out of your SAA 15-years-to-command mindset and look north to Europe and the ME to see how easily it is done. I fly a big jet and probably have less hours than a lot of Fluffy pilots in SA.
PS. If anyone was surprised at the lack of modesty in this post.? Don't be.
Not surprised at all