Avi8tor even though I am out of here, I am still firmly on the side of the SAA pilots.
I find it really funny that guys complain about the government being totally useless on crime, roads, hospital etc, but see totally cool with the idea the government can run the national carrier the same way. I wonder why the double standard?
Not one SAA pilot I have met is happy with the way things are done at SAA, the union has been fighting against those useless
in management for a long time, they refuse to listen to us on account of there pig headed arrogance that lets them believe they know what the
they are doing. Every SAA pilot would like the company to be a profitable suastainable organisation however when the government insists on interfearing and making SAA a social employment agency what can we do?
Are you suggesting that the pilots take a pay cut because of government interference and the total lack of accountability of any of the previous management? I think thats what DJ would like to see (you still not taking the bait DJ?) because he believes pilots are dispensable and there are 500 CV's waiting.............little does he know that even though there are 500 CV's, they may not be many people left who are qualified who want to come to SAA, the pilots run most of the flight Ops department most importaintly the training department and I know for a fact they are struggling right now converting 60 or so 747 pilots to the A340......Only DJ could explain to you how 100 new pilots are going to be trained from a training section that is already working hard.......God forbid the training pilots start leaving then we will see some fun.
Like it or not SAA is a legacy airline that has been around for a very long time (they say second in the world, although cant confirm this) we operate big aircraft and we fly around the world, the pilots deserve to be remunated as such, we are not Comair, Nationwide, 1time Kulula so please dont compare us to them. I am not sure what fleet size has to do with how much we should get paid, maybe we should look at how long the airline has been around versus how much we are paid, what that got to anything you may ask.......its taken that long for the pilots at SAA to negotiate a decent wage. Pilots are like Aircraft you need them to run an airline, I dont see SAA running off to Airbus or Boeing and demanding a cut in the lease rates.......because management
up. So why must we cut the pilots salaries, the waythings are going experienced pilots are a rare comodity, Emirates (which you may know) need 500 pilots next year, 600 the following year and it continues up, they themselves dont know how they are going to crew the aircraft they are getting, Qantas needs 500 pilots....the list goes on and on, so my untrained management brain tells me that maybe you should pay your pilots well and keep them or let them go and open a whole can of worms as to how you replace them........DJ dont be short sighted on how easy it is, you may think that your experience at Mango is how it works.....not really, try talking to the Emirates recruitment people, you may get the true picture then, oh I forgot you want to make us all contractors with no pension plans..........thats fine, but go and find out how much the rest of the world is paying for contractors, why would anyone work for SAA on a contract basis when the rest of the world is offering twice the amount (and you are safe in those countries)