Ill informed and wide of the mark...The retention rate amongst pilots is extremely high, nothing to do with the bonding in the contracts but the low cost of living and tax regime in Turkey, meaning most FOs are getting more than they would in Europe " clean" I'm not comparing with any tax avoidance scams like RYR etc. The employment chances for guys to remain in Europe are low, let's not bullish*t about this, they are VERY LOW. With re-organisations at SXS bases many SXS Yabanci FOs have been place directly with THY mainline on the 737, even though some didn't meet the criteria, they will enter as senior FO and will net 6000 Euro a month, probably the best paid FO job around with chances to go on wide body in a few years. At SXS The "type rating" cost of 30K euro also include all the OCC course and all the line training, usually new FOs are trained away from main base and they get Hotac and per diems from day 1. The roster pattern and triple off request mean guys can visit home if they choose. In 2010 and 2011 SXS took FOs from Stella their average debt was nearly 100K Euro, and they were happy to get the job! Regarding Turkish Trainers being complete jerks, I couldn't disagree more, but of course, if you turn up in jeans and flip flops for ground school or don't revise for line training, well.. take a long look at yourself first! There are 16 new FOs starting Jan and 10 Captains, of course if you don't want to integrate into the Turkish culture or are not prepared to work hard you should perhaps consider some of the other options that turn up. Incidently, most of the flight standards operation is European, not Turkish..
