Something that I can’t quite figure out here is what the motive is behind this latest policy. It serves little purpose other than to antagonize 45% of the pilot workforce for no perceivable gain.
A perfect contradiction. It is ok for the company to have the commander buried in the most remote location on the aircraft during his crew rest with two F/Os at the controls. The company line on this is that the caliber and training of the first officers is such that they are quite capable of handling any situation without the assistance of the Captain. All well and good. However with this new policy First Officers are not considered worthy of the left seat until they have at least 3000hrs on an EK type along with all the other restrictions.
Was it the company insurers who insisted on this? It is the only logical explanation I can come up with. Following this logic then surely similar restrictions should be placed on Post Holders and Managers within the company. Lets see how they stack up.
EVP Flight Operations & Engineering: AAR. An engineer (not a very competent one I am told) with no relevant flight experience.
DSVP Flight Ops. TCAS. No experience on EK type did fly long-haul at BA where the longest sector was about 11 hours with four crew then the whole lot had to stop for a round of Gin & Tonics and practice saying “ The Speedbird” followed by a week off in France.
VP Fleet; Ed Ah bless him. No relevant type experience. Possible long-haul experience as an F/O only, then Union Rep followed by an honors degree in greasy pole climbing. Longest sector flown in command on an RJ probably 3 hours. Has the audacity to call himself Captain though and occasionally dresses up for the part to amuse the troops.
VPFT: MM. To be fair jury still out on this one however no relevant EK experience and not an awful lot of civil command time I am told. Talks the talk still waiting to see if he can walk the walk.
As for the other minions CPs and DCPs, they are largely irrelevant in the decision making process. CP A380 is an illiterate incompetent buffoon but hey he is local so who cares. CP Boeing has actually spent some time in the trenches but he too is local and has reached the stage where he couldn’t give a sh_t about anything. As for DCP Boeing, I very much doubt that he has more than 3000 hrs on an EK type because he spends most of his days thinking up cunning and irrelevant questions to ask upgrade candidates. Should have a bit of time on his hands now though.
All in all not a very inspiring bunch.
Great post GN - post of the week award 
4HP