380
Hi!
It always amazes me that how much people generally afraid of new things... I'm looking forward to the change!
I'm a G1, working for Emirates for 2 years.
I know: dollar is sucks but still, we pretty much make a good money as accomodation is provided.
I know: too much work. Well, you might want to work for Ryanair where the flight time limitation is 1200 hours a year (note: it changes in April), doing 4-6 sectors a day, having 10-12 stand-by-s a month. You might want to work another internation airline and wait for 3 years to get a long-haul flight. You might want to work for charter company and doing all the same routes... etc. It's your choice.
There are good and bad things about Emirates. If you are a young and healthy person you might want to concentrate on the good ones: lots of destinations and easy life (no bills, beach, sunshine). If you are fed up with living in the desert, you might want to move to another country with 4 seasons.
ABOUT THE 380s:
I'm very excited to fly this new aircraft, I already applied. I don't care about the new uniform, I care about quality, big galleys, good equipment, nice athmoshper with crew. I'm sure the pursers will be able to face this challenge: I don't feel sorry for them. We'll see...
We all know the first destinations. As they are all long and ultralong-haul flights, I expect to have 15-20 days off a month. (The lay-overs might be longer at the beginning, as we won't have enough airplanes.) I would like to spend more time with my boy-friend in Dubai and visit my family and friends in Budapest (Hungary, Europe). Good reason to apply? Well, we'll see...
We still have 6 months to become the first aircraft. Application ends 1st March. I expect most of the G2s, G1s to be upgraded by that time. One 380 requires appr. 150 crew. I expect that the upgrades will be much faster than usual. The new joiners obviously won't have a choice: they will be schedualed and might be upgraded for business class in 6-10 months if it is necessery. We'll see...
The same destinations at the beginning. Yes. After 2 years? I think it will be a privilage to apply for this aircraft type. The people, who don't apply now, will probably be listed for the training on a waiting list. We'll see...
I'm sure we'll do long-hauls mostly in 2009. The aircraft makes money when it is in the air. Later? Yes, you might get 2-4 turn-arounds a month. Just like now. We'll see...
FOR WANNABEES: if you are hired now, you still get the old training. If you join in 3-6 months, they wont't give you a choice. Your luck... I expect the experienced crew to be put on the 380s as they are good SFS-materials.
Well, I've been thinking about this for a long time, so the decision was easy to make. I wanted to share my opinion with you.
We cannot look into the future, just use our common sense and experience to try to figure out what could happen...
See you aboard!