Originally Posted by
Wind rider
In response to the statement that Saudis are not interested in moving to the left seat, I'd like to point out a few facts.
I am Saudi and have been a FO with Saudi airlines for 9 years. I flew md90's for 2 years than moved on to the 777. Just last year I was asked by the company to take the ATP test in preparation for command training... Which I immediately did along with a lot of fellow colleagues.
However, training was put on hold and priority was given to foreign direct hire captains. 60 of them. (The average number of captains per class is 4... There is anywhere between 4 and 8 captain upgrade classes a year. You do the math... It's been more than a year now and myself and my colleges are still waiting for training to resume for Saudi nationals. The excuse is the magic statement "company requirements" and We have no choice but to accept it.
The average time for a Saudi to become a captain In our company is 11 years. This is very well known. In the 777 fleet alone there is about 90 Saudi FO's ready and willing to move to the left seat. The other fleets 330 and 747 have probably half of that number ready... This misconception that Saudis are not interested in becoming captains however, is based on the fact that a certain number of senior first officers " mostly ex flight engineers " that became pilots when 3 man crew aircrafts were phased out didn't have the minimum number of hours required for upgrade (4000 hours) seemed like they weren't interested.
A few others actually went for the training and did not make... So they became permanent FO's. These guys have 30 plus years of service and are very close to retirement.
Anyways, please before you go around saying things that you do not completely understand, do your homework. We take pride in our airline being multi cultural and friendly and we welcome all people with their various backgrounds and levels of experience without being judgmental.
I hope this clarifies the issue.
Safe travels to all.
I totally agree with you. As a foreign Captain who has been flying with extremely high Quality and highly experienced Saudi First Officers for the last few years, I find it very surprising that the company only trickles them into command positions. At the same time furiously recruiting Captains from outside the company.