PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Getting into the commercial aviation world
Old 30th July 2013 | 03:28
  #6 (permalink)  
pull-up-terrain
 
Joined: Oct 2011
Posts: 255
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From: Australia
There is a lot of information out there on pprune about these cadetships with virgin, jetstar, Cathay and Rex. Besides the virgin cadetship, the other cadetships have a lot of very big negatives that you need to consider.

For a start, you have too much experience so you won't be able to join the virgin Australia cadetship.

The jetstar cadetship, is probably the most expensive and f****d way of becoming an airline pilot. (Just do a search and you will see why). But you are looking at a debt of $150k+ and earning a salary of less than $70k per year before you start paying off the debt, so expect to be earning less than $50k a year for quite a while, while you are paying off the debt.

Cathay cadetship, are you willing to live in Hong Kong for the rest of your flying career with Cathay? Because by the sounds of it, you can no longer get based in Australia (according to my mates who fly for Cathay). I have lived in Hong Kong in the past and there is no way on earth I could stand living there.

Rex you are going to be stuck as a first officer for quite a while because you need to build ICUS time to be able to gain a complete atpl before you can go for your command. By the sounds of it, there are cadets who joined Rex in there very first cadet intake over 5 years ago who still dont have the ICUS requirements to get a command. There is a 7 year pay back with Rex and if you decide to leave before the 7 years (which will most likely not happen because most airline jobs out there want a full atpl and some pic time which you will most likely not gain within 7 years of working at Rex) you will be hit up with the remaining training costs you owe which could be very expensive.

So in the long run, you are probably better off doing it the traditional way of going through general aviation up north building pic and multi engine hours with charter/cargo operators and still be earning a reasonable income (probably more than a rex and a jetstar cadet) with no debt over your shoulders. Once you have the hours start applying for regional and major airlines because there are airlines like cobham, Skywest, tiger, skippers, airnorth that don't have cadetships that take on ga pilots. Even virgin and jetstar most of the pilots they recruit are ga pilots. If qantas one day open its doors again for direct entry second officers you are going to be in a much better position with the wide range of flying experience you would have gained throughout ga then a Rex first officer who doesn't have a atpl and bugger all pic time.
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