Dixons Cider
Well based on your postings and if it were up to me, I wouldn't hire you. Wouldn't touch you with a barge pole.
Confident in your own abilities, positive attitude? Keep reading those self help books boy.
You liken the cadetship process to an apprenticeship - an apprentice knows to keep his head down, and mouth shut when required, and absorb knowledge from those around him.
You don't sound anything like an apprentice to me.
Ha ha... welcome back to the '60s...
I've handled recruitment for two airlines in my career, and PhoenixNZ is exactly the sort of guy I'd hire. Confident, focused, capable of reasoned argument and joined-up thinking. Perfect for aviation. But more to the point, he is an HR person's dream, and that is is increasingly the only requirement these days. Not saying that last bit is a good thing, BTW.
I certainly wouldn't hire YOU with an attitude like that, you would be one of those arsehole captains if you treat people like that.
27/09
Do you know what % of total costs pilots wages are?
Yes... at my former airline, anyway. Low-cost operator with 100+ airframes:
2006 - 4.96%
2007 - 5.15%
2008 - 5.63%
2009 - 6.04%
2010 - 5.79%
Training is typically 0.15% of Total Operating Costs.
The reason for posting those figures is to demonstrate that, in terms of the overall financial picture, cutting crew salaries has minimal effect on the bottom line and is only generally done when times are extremely desperate. Pilot salaries are often the biggest identifiable figure in an airline's budget, because of the sheer number of pilots compared to other staff groups, but still only a small percentage and often the hardest to change. We found, for example, that efficient fuel hedging netted us far greater savings than any attempt to thwart pay increases might have done. That is not to say that airlines don't look at every possible saving, of course.
Highest operating expenses are (generally):
Passenger Embarkation Fees (ie airport charges)
Flight Equipment Rental (ie lease costs)
Fuel
Engineering
Are the airlines paying their executives any less to keep their costs down?
Yes - see post 46 above -
http://www.pprune.org/dg-p-reporting...ml#post6593146
Sure you might think that 100K is a good enough salary for later in your career.
Well for a start it won't be 100K, more like 170K for a skipper with all the bits and pieces added in. My mates at Jetstar tell me that overnights are pretty rare for skippers, which makes sense because most low-cost operators have few night stops (way too expensive for them).
Just as you have pointed out your reasons for thinking the Jetstar deal is good for you, you cannot blame them for speaking out either.
Nobody is blaming them for speaking out, however it is the MANNER in which they do so that is objectionable... as PhoenixNZ said, "One can't have an opposing opinion without being called a scab, sellout, HR employee, management wannabe etc etc etc." He's presenting a reasoned and sensible argument, with no emotion, and is being abused by so-called "professional" pilots. Not a good look, really.
Di_Vosh
If that is truly the flying career in NZ, then I would do something else.
Dreams are dreams, but reality takes priority.
Couldn't agree more. I wouldn't do it.
Fruet Mich
I you end up being offered a lot less that what's on offer today in 3 years time, don't be surprised. This is how low cost works.
No, it really isn't. It's how some operators work, but the grandaddy of them all, and the model on which all others are built, doesn't work that way at all (Southwest Airlines). Very well paid, profit share, most employees own part of their company. People hardly ever leave Southwest, and for good reason.
Most lo-cos go to Southwest to see how they work, it's a kind of pilgrimage. When the Ryanair CEO went there a few years ago, he took some of their lessons and applied them... but not ALL of them, which is why Ryanair now has industrial relation issues. The Southwest CEO, during an interview, just shook his head and said that unless Ryanair implemented Southwest's staffing policies, they would have a lot of trouble in the future. Guess what...
I believe that the lo-cos that survive will be the ones that implement a Southwest-style staff policy. Funny how they make so much money while treating their staff so well...
So no, I don't think Jetstar will attempt to ruthlessly cut pilot salaries, it's completely counter-productive.
And "doing the hard yards" is an anachronism in the Noughties.