Well I thought I'd try and give a decent answer but I have to start with a question which would definitely come up at interview....
- If it's not a rude question how come no upgrade after 20 years in aviation, is it just the moving around? The Netjets environment very demanding not just in terms flying but also on the challenges it presents to the company's commanders, on a daily (if not hourly) basis. The upgrade course is very short and with little time to develop peoples' captaincy skills. Also if you have the hours you can find yourself up for a command course in a very short time with little opportunity to find your feet in the operation. With the new career policy, the course is now two attempts only so if you have doubts about being ready it's something of a gamble. If you cannot honestly say that it was unfair or just unfortunate that you haven't held a command before then I suggest you stick with the environment you know. You have obviously been successful enough in to get the offer of a command. If you feel you have what it take though it is certainly a fun demanding but rewarding job working with some really good people.
- Plenty of people have gone to other companies like BA, Air France, KLM, Dragon Air, Cathy Pacific etc so I guess that NetJets wasn't too much of a black mark. This was even at a time when the company was not that well known - a mate who was being interviewed for AF was asked if we do CRM training at NetJets! Now we are much more well known and I think other companies will not look too badly on anyone coming from us to them.
- I think you can survive day to day. The guys on the smaller and medium cabin fleets tend to work hardest I think, however, once on the larger cabin life is definitely easier. Having said that over the last few years with the increasing number of aircraft scattered around the world, the individual on the line has seen things quieten down a lot – it now comes as a real shock having to fly 4 legs in a day
- 6 days away (or 5 nights really), if you have kids, can be hard. However, it depends a lot on their age and what they have been use to before. I find it works well because I'm always at home for big chunks of time which mean I can do more with my family when I'm home.
- Who knows – my gut feeling is that we are more recession proof than most conventional airlines and we are well funded for the forseeable future. However, never say never.