cx_773er
In thinking of worst case scenarios, if it really did get that bad why could a cadet not just move to another airline elsewhere and just leave HK? I understand that they are tied to the company for 6 years after completion of flight training and that they will become a second officer logging p2x hours immediately after this, but surely after a 4 years or so they will be able to log hours deemed worthy by other airlines? The last two years then of those 6 they would then be accumulating loggable hours which could be used to apply to some other airline.
You are making the assumption that your upgrade will happen in 4 years. It may be more or it may be less. The track record over the last 11 years is that it will get longer overall with short durations of more rapid upgrades. When I joined upgrades were happening in 18 months. It has been as long as 4.5 years and is currently just over 4 years. With CX in the not too distant future changing the crewing composition on Ultra Long Haul flights from 1xCapt, 2xFO’s & 1xSO to 1xCapt, 1xFO & 2xSO’s upgrades could very well blow out to 6+ years.
Surely then could this not be a good stepping stone to stick it out with CX for a while and then move on once those 6 years are up (or you may even end up finding you like it and decide to stay!).
What you need to understand is that you using CX as a stepping stone rather than a career airline because you have accepted inferior T&C’s only makes it worse for us already here. It puts downward pressure on our T&C’s. It also lowers the conditions across the industry because airlines will only pay what the market dictates and you have already lowered the bar.
Yes the training is expensive but given the fact that to begin training requries obtaining a huge loan from somewhere with no gurantee of finding employment afterwards, the cx deal seems quite good?
Why do you need to get a loan? You could join the military or you could do as I did, work full time for four years while at the same time going to university part-time and learning to fly on the weekends. It took me four years to get my licence all debt free. You need to think outside the box if you want to succeed in life and this is the first step.
Also, with the bond lasting 6 years, what would happen if a cadet thought enough is enough, i cannot put up with these conditions and decided they wanted to just leave? What would the resulting fine/penalty be?
If you leave before 6 years the HK$1.1M loan has to be repaid in full.