Originally Posted by
Asian experience
Yep these guys are still recruiting,
From my friend who just recently left, he says and I quote.
"It is a Aw139 training school with a revolving door, they are constantly recruiting every year, high turnover every year, but the the Chinese just keep paying"
That has always been the case, for the past 20 years. I worked for them way-back when they had Bell 222's, then the S76C+ came along, it was the same then...and now with the AW139. Having experience on type was a good tick in the box to have to get hired, but it was never a pre-requisite. I know so many pilots who got hired without a type-rating and were given their initial training on type in Macau, after being hired.
For those unfamiliar with the way things work there, this is not a stand-alone commercial operation in the traditional sense where revenue from operations maintains the business as a going concern. We used to fly around in the S76 with very low occupancy rate, probably 35% or less on average, and many times we'd fly a sector without any passenger revenue at all. And the other aircraft on the reverse route would be the same. It didn't really matter to the Company: all that was important was an on-time departure, and to be seen flying the route.
So the fact that it obviously costs a lot of money to recruit an expatriate pilot, and then put them through an initial type rating, and the relocation expenses, and everything else, doesn't really matter. And it doesn't matter that they come out the end of the training pipeline with only 10-20 hours on type, or maybe even only a couple of hundred hours total helicopter time. What matters is they have 2 qualified pilots up the front, a serviceable aircraft, and an on-time departure. The fact that it costs a lot of money to get to that point, even to the extent that it costs more to provide the service than the revenue earned, ultimately doesn't matter that much.
In the grand scheme of things it is nothing to them to write a cheque for 6 new aircraft, be it S76 or AW139. They have the money from the wider Group operations (remember the Shun Tak Group core-business is Casino, and they plough $HK18million/month or whatever into Skyshuttle to keep the helicopters flying). So they have the money, they just need the people.
I enjoyed my time in Macau, I wouldn't hesitate to go back and work for them again.