Very true. Aerologic is indeed not a bad company to work for but as you say, it really depends on where you are coming from and what your alternatives are.
Some bits of info from me with rose-tinted specs off:
Language: Except for a handful of individuals who got in early with the right amount of experience needed at that time, fluency in german is a hard requirement. At least at a normal conversational level.
Company Culture: Generally good, however latest developements concerning establishing a works council and such have lead to some 'questionable' behaviour from management and coupled with lets say 'questionable' decisions (not getting into more details in public) in the past years, crew morale, especially on the FO side, is rather low. Still on the flight deck expect to have a good time with in general a great bunch of people.
Rosters and Duty: Yes 15 working days is awesome but as EAM said, far from being part time. I was with the company in the hard times, with 8-9 days off and 90-100 hours a month and from my opinion with the kind of flying we do, what we have right now is necessary to sustain a healthy life.
In general, 3-4 Rotations a month is a good guess, hours depends. East Rotations have generally more hours than West Rotations, but 70 in a normal month is a good guess. Then also expect some standby duties in Lej (yes you have to be there) and the ocassional night trip to BRU or EMA and back. Rosters once published are pretty stable in general.
Vacation: 40 days, but OFF days are reduced with a 2:1 ratio.
Staff Travel: Lots of ID Agreements for a cargo airline, commuting also possible on DHL.
Salary: As stated by Bill Boeing and 20% of that salary is tax free. 2€/h (48€ a day) per diem. Keep in mind that during vacation or sickness, your tax free allowance is reduced by the number of days and you will earn less. Also don't count on the per diems as part of your salary, you will(!) spend them downroute in case you don't want to go to McD every time.
Expansion and future prospects:
Expansion might or might not happen in the future, more likely from LH side than DHLs but don't count on it. Even then, there will most probably be no quick upgrades anymore and i would expect 5-7 years+ minimum. No expansion will let you stay in the right seat forever. Why? Lots of captains are between early 30s and mid 40s and generally we have more captains than we most probably need, so i would not expect any significant amount of upgrades with even 2 additional aircraft right now. In addition, within the 1-1.5 years, there will be 20+ SFOs ready for upgrade and in 5-7 years, almost every F/O in the company right now will have the experience required to upgrade and they will all be in front of you.
Also keep in mind that your salary progresses quite slow, if you come into the company with some experience and an entry level salary of 55.000€, it will take you 16 years to reach First Officer Maximum. And then, you will still join the Captain salary scale almost at the bottom.
Bottom Line is, it's not a bad job or a bad company and within germany with our ****ty market you will have a hard time finding a better job offer right now but come here with your eyes open and know what to expect. Take everything what is promised to you with a grain of salt and base you decision whether to join or not on the facts at hand.
Best of luck for your upcoming interview in Nov
