Ifly462 EK will take you direct if you have 3 yrs in FZ. You can literally finish FZ on one day and start at EK the next. I personally know 9 pilots who have gone direct from FZ to EK.
However going from FZ to QR or EY is not so easy. Technically you need 12 clear months without a UAE visa. The rule of course is unwritten. However I had personal experience of going through selection post FZ to be told, oh sorry we just noticed you're FZ come back in 12 months!
Allegedly you basically need to leave UAE or work in a non airline job to fufill this criteria. I know of one who went to ET for a year and did indeed them move from EK to EY. ( The same rule applies to them.)
This is why I urge peope to choose wisely as movement from FZ is basically only directly available to EK and that only after 3 years by which time you will either have just got command or be very close and then likely will not want to move until you have got 300 then 500 then 1000 then 1500hrs.
Then unless you move as an SFI as 4 of the 9 mentioned above did you move back to being an FO but on longhaul. Granted yes you have the 737 PIC to fall back on but in 5 yrs time when you were once a captain on B737 and you are now a 4000hr FO on B777/787 then you are still an FO if you decide to move to a new airline or if your sandbag of crap is full.
Join longhaul now if you are headed that way in the long run and you will be a longhaul captain quicker. You wont have a problem getting a job at home with a longhaul command under your belt but the opposite isn't true.
From my point of view I always wanted longhaul but I wanted a quick command as a back up.
Last edited by Vortex Thing; 4th Jul 2016 at 01:09.