PoinDextir,
In the contract arena is not strange to see attrition levels pick up on every single airline on a rotating cycle. It happens in AJX, in RYR, in the sandpit and everywhere you look at. The airlines where most of your excolleagues from AJX are leaving to, guess what, they are probably infested with pilots who are looking at the AJX gig, who would give an arm and a leg to be invited to Tokyo for an assesment, and who surely don't understand why anyone would come to their turf coming from Japan. "You're out of your mind leaving that job in Tokyo, man!", some of your colleagues will be told.
Pilots are whiners. I know because I'm a whiner myself. We just can't get content enough. I understand that any commuting job has always a time limit to it because regardless of how good the gig might be, people will always try to go back home even to worse conditions and not spend over half of their lives on the other side of the planet. But if you accept the fact that you are going to commute, and your family supports you on that decision, there is no doubt that AJX is one of the best contracts out there, if not the best, and that's even with the after-the-merger regressions. And it is good just because it's
better than the other available contracts out there, plain and simple. The money is
better, the business class commute is
better , the amount of days off is
better, the fleet is
better, and the base (Tokyo) is
much better than so many other third world country where you most likely will end up making less money, flying more hours, with less days off, and a worse commute home.
So you've had your conditions worsened. Welcome to the real world of contracting aviation. And be careful what you wish for, because your wishes may become true. I see one of the biggest issues that are being mentioned here is fatigue. Now I fly 900 hours a year of short haul flying and wake up at 3:45 AM for 5 days in a row to fly with no food or water provided for 11 and change hour duties and with the fuel, on-time performance and operational pressures of the king of LCC's, not to mention that I make much less than AJX's CPTs do and that I fly 5 or 6 times their number of sectors, with all those beautiful turnarounds, CTOT's, unhhapy PAX who just got slammed at the gate for the size of their luggage, and surrounded by cabin crew and ground staff who are lucky to make a grand on their best month. Tell me about your fatigue issues and give me more details on your rostering complaints and we can discuss them, but be prepared to have a lasting discussion because fatigue is an issue in most contracting jobs out there. Not being unionized and being expats, leaves us all contractors exposed to rostering abuses, change of conditions, dishonouring of contracting clauses, and an endless list of undesirable trends that, I'm afraid, you will find in your next gig unless you're being recalled to your lovely major or your uncle owns a learjet.
I frankly don't think that is fair to say that experienced drivers who actually like AJX (or better said don't dislike it that much so as to leave for another job), are just suffering of Stockholm syndrome. IMHO, they have simply not found a better option. And guess what, nowdays they're not going to, simply because there aren't any. And I have done my shopping around, just like anybody else in the contracting bubble.
I realize that being succesful for this job is harder than the average, and that the training bits are definetely a downfall to it, including the risk of loosing it all by failing after 8 months of adaptation, submission and surviving the training mode that not one of us likes to be on. Now, I'm not anywhere close to being a Top Gun, and for what has been exposed here, I have the same chances of failing than the next guy, if not more. But I know and can give it a try. One thing is for sure, if they are paying me my salary from day 1, they are not charging me for the type rating or even bonding me, they are covering my accomodation expenses, and including airfare and hotel for my wife and kids to visit me, I think I can have reasons to believe that their real intention is for me to pass and fly for them, and not waste their time and money on a paid 9 month stay in Japan.
In any case, we will see if I can get an assesment or not. But in the meantime, let me tell you that greener pastures are hard to find, and that by searching around I think you will manage to move sideways at best, but I don't believe you will find a better gig in the contract/ex-pat arena. If there is, please advise so that we can all go there and be happy everafter.
Lastly, don't think of me (or any new comer) as intruders, or the reason why your conditions have degraded or will not improve. Pilots come and go, and with the actual world crisis, I'm sure that they are receiving a **** load of CV's by the day. This job has been advertised non stop for years, same as KAL. It is just their recruitment style to keep screening looking out for what they think matches their criteria and profile. Those who think that AJX is unable to pick up crews from the market because of their worsening conditions I think are not being realistic with the current situation out there. With that being said, it is obvious that ANA is satisfied with its expat group of pilots and that Air Japan is used by ANA as a threating and pressure tool to keep their mainline unionized pilots in line, just like many other flag carriers do. I don't have the crystal ball, but I have the feeling that Air Japan will grow and will continue to be one of the best contracts out there, despite the low morale currently in place by most of its drivers.
Ok, back to the kitchen now to cook my spaghettis for my 12 hour/ 6 sector duty of tomorrow morning (if you can call 3:55 AM morning time)...
