Capt. upgrade process
was recently talking to someone who was interested in joining AJX as an F/O. He was expecting to have an opportunity to upgrade to capt. in the first 5 year contract.
In the past AJX F/O's have, with the exception of 1 or 2, had the opportunity to upgrade in the first 5 year contract. A while ago the company was telling interviewees that they would upgrade in 3 years, which was pretty accurate.
The company has consistently been upgrading 12 per year, since 2005. This year, they cancelled 1 course and did 8 upgrades. From next year, the story is they will resume 12 per year.
Having a look at the present F/O pool, there are around 85 F/O's with a few more in the training process. Going on past performance, at 12 per year, this would mean that any F/O joining now would have to wait 7 or more years to commence the upgrade process.
Of course, we work in a dynamic environment and anything could change. If these changes occur, we are normally the last to know.