As far as I know, QF is the only company which (when they actually were hiring Olivia
) hired a mix of cadet and experienced pilots
all to the rank of Second Officer. This mix, along with F/Os required to have command endorsements on type, means QF has, since Pontius was a pilot, used;
- 1 x Captain,
- 1 x F/O, and
- up to 2 x S/Os for its longer-haul flying.
Does any other company do this? My understanding is that CX use 1+2+1, BA use 2+2+0 as do most US airlines. SQ or EK info anyone?
It's easy to talk about QF S/Os who, by virtue of yearly pay increments with virtually nil QF promotion, have incomes better than competitors' S/Os. What's not so obvious is that the competitors' S/Os;
- are fewer in number for the same flying,
- promote faster to the greater number of F/O positions for the same flying,
- ultimately reach command (ie top dollars) much sooner too, and thereby
- have the potential to aggregate much greater wealth than an average QF pilot (divorce & other disasters excluded
) during a career.
There are pilots in QF with
well over 10K hours and absolutely no command opportunity in sight under the apparent plans of current management. Are QF competitors siphoning off flying to wholly-owned subsidiaries or downsizing pilot numbers with A380s? And which competitors allow pilots to stay past 60?(just saying, not complaining; it's the law) The stagnation in QF mainline is demoralising and, yes, more pilots are probably considering leaving.
And some wonder why there might be some frustration...
