The State of Play
Ok. I'll jump in and give it a go...
The North Americans are tending to give CX a wide berth as reported several times previously. The COS are simply not attractive enough and the culture in both management and training (sorry...checking) is a well known joke. Word is simply getting around; pilots in North America have more and superior choices. These guys are experienced and will not tolerate being treated like children/200 hour CPL's as guys and girls are at CX.
The South Africans will always come. It's the only way they can earn and keep money out of S Africa.
The Kiwis will always come, but the NZD at it's current level is not making CX a particularly attractive option. The buying power of the 'mighty' CX dollar (i.e. HKD) has erroded some 40+ percent over the last decade when considered in terms of the NZD.
The Ozzies are in a similar situation to the Kiwis. The difference is that there are more options in Australia. In particular now that Virgin is about to poach a whole bunch of 777 drivers from CX and EK. I am sure that the package will be just enough to entice folks away from the sandpit and pollution city. This is especially in the Capt rank. That will hurt both CX and EK.
As stated previously, the strength of the Euro and GBP is tending to make Europeans think twice about heading to CX.
All this and the shortage of pilots elsewhere and people simply see other options as being better. Additionally, many know the crap that CX pilots have to put up with in terms of hoops to jump through (yes, even from the interview. Sorry, who started this airline? The name of the first plane? What engine is on the 773? How many 777's? Describe mach tuck? Really important stuff!!). Again, word is getting around about all the shyte that CX guys have to put up with. Expect 10 years of it. Only when you have a command does it pretty much stop. And don't expect one soon if 65 goes through. Gotta fight that one I tell ya!
NR knows it's gonna be tough. He'll want to push a deal through now as he knows it's gonna be cheap compared to 1 year from now when the sqeeze really starts to tell in terms of pilots (lack of) and planes (lots of). It's his career on the line more than ours.......
Last edited by newbie1972; 8th Jun 2007 at 22:49.