Flying Touareg

VK should sort out its flight delay problems asap. It is really annoying. Was at DNMM yesterday for 6 hours waiting to be taken to abuja. We are fed up.

AVSEC

Well get ready for Qatar five flights a week,China Southern three flights a week,Bellview daily UK,west african regional flights and Arik international routes,and you will understand how bad it will be by june 2007.

You are right about poorly maintained xray machines in DNMM baggage hall,with suspect caliberation and poorly trained FAAN staff spending several hours watching the monitor in contravention of IATA,ICAO/IOSA best practise guidelines.
With decreasing FAAN/NAMA/NCAA/Ministry of Aviation experienced personnel,being sacked to meet some government target,things will really get bad before they get better.

I am all for sourcing out because you get what you pay for,and if new measures are not put in place soon,PHC and ABV accidents will be a childs play,compared to any similar occurrance in DNMM.

I wish you guys all the best,and dont envy you putting up with all these problems.

manuelvi

Hi all.
Just to know how is the situation in Virgin nigeria?still flying the A320?are they leased with crews or fully operated by Virgin?
Do you know if they recruit people from an agency called "AeroE Recruitment"?

thanks for the answers

cheers

MV

surely not

Might I suggest you visit the Virgin Nigeria website before your interview Manuelvi because it has much information that will help you with the history and present day operations of VK (even if Rani dislikes its style )

Rani

Isn't it nice how some traditional rulers reward Virgin Nigeria for providing the only air link from Sokoto to the outside world ?!
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Virgin Nigeria, one of the five official airline carriers for this year’s Hajj exercise,
has been slammed a sum of $500, 000 (about N65million) fine for breaching the contractul agreement it entered
with the Nigerian Hajj officials for the airlift of pilgrims.
Also fined is Meridien Airline which would pay a fine of $100, 000 (about
N13million) for the same offence.
The Amirul Hajj and Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar made this
revelation while addressing Ogun state pilgrims at their Ajiyad residence in
Makkah yesterday.
Both airlines failed to airlift their pilgrims most of whom were from Ogun,
Lagos, Zamfara, Borno, Edo and Oyo states, thereby losing their slots with the
Saudi airline officials and rendering the pilgrims stranded.
Virgin and Meridien missed five and one slots respectively at the Jeddah
Airport. A clause in the contractual agreement reached by all the airline
carriers and the Nigerian Hajj officials stipulated that the violation of each
slot would attract a $100, 000 sanction.
The Sultan, who was also at Borno and Edo pilgrims’ residences said: “We have
told them that for each day missed, they are going to pay $100, 000. So by the
time we conclude this operation, they (Virgin) would end up paying $500, 000
because we are going to invoke this clause to ensure they pay the money for
keeping people here.
“We have done same to the Meridien Air because they also missed one day. We are
going to fine them $100, 000 to make sure they do the right thing for our
pilgrims,” he added.
The Sultan noted that the measure was taken in order to call the erring airlines
to order as well as guard against future breach of the contract by others.
He enjoined the pilgrims to exercise more patience as all efforts are in top
gear to evacuate them back into the country, stressing that they must also
co-operate with the officials of the Presidential Committee on Hajj (PCH)
towards ensuring a successful return airlift operation.
He maintained that he would not fold his arms and see the pilgrims suffer
“because we’ll all be questioned by the Almighty Allah”, adding that he would
not leave the Holyland until their problem is solved.
The Sultan later informed the pilgrims that sequel to the stringent measure,
Virgin has commenced the airlift of some of the pilgrims on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, as the homebound operation entered its sixth day yesterday, a total
of 10, 482 Nigerian pilgrims have been airlifted. A flight schedule released by
the PCH officials revealed that the pilgrims were airlifted in 27
flights.
Source: Dailytrust.com - Newspapers Online

jagunmolu

Hi guys,I just got selected to attend a VK Trg in the UK and would like to know if anyone on this forum can let me know if VK has any department in charge of standard/training and if its functional?Furthermore what is the course structure like?What happens if i fail my checkride ?do i get more time?Ive heard a lot of stories,i just want to be sure what im up against.

surely not

Jag, form what I have heard in the past, providing your flying is accurate and you are not a cowboy then I doubt you will have anything unusual to worry about.

The great strength of prune is also its weakness. Anyone can post anything and remain anonymous and it is possible that not all the terror stories re the interview that are posted on here are true .

Rani

Hey you pasted a duplicate of my message about his highness Sultan Abubakar fining VK

Skullduggery

Does anyone have any CURRENT information regarding VK obtaining 767s and whether they are wet lease or not. 767 salary?
Also, I have seen the salary figure here on PPRUNE for the 737, but is accomodation provided, and if so where?
Any other pertinent info would be greatly appreciated.

Rani

From what I heard, the 767-3Y0ERs will be damp-leased and as such cockpit crew will be provided by the lessors (Astraeus) while VK is to provide the cabin crew.

oba_idan_amani

Rumour has it that all Virgin Nigeria A340 pilots will be absorbed by Virgin Atlantic and will all be right seat. Captains not happy will be moved down to B737-300 captains or can leave the company for elsewhere. Now, this is just a rumour I heard from an insider.

Oba Idan Amani

themajor

Yes its at the Sheraton ,LAgos

MarkD

revnetwork was right on the money - BMI's fixed-up A330 will be the stopgap aircraft before Astraeus' 763s come in.

themajor

HI just did the interview and have been offered a Job. Wondering does anybody know if their is any aircrew z fare with north american airlines. Need to know if i can get a discount flight to get to New york and then on To Toronto . And is it true you can schedule 1 month in and 2 weeks out?

If any one knows pls reply

jagunmolu

I Had a post here recently saying i had been invited to attend a vk course stating my reservations,I have been vindicated as for thier job offer they can shove it.Reports reaching me are not encouraging....Guys go on initial trg bust thier balls PASS GRD SCH,PASS SIM CHECK AS CAPTAIN and big balls DFO says they should be demoted to F/O STATING HIS OWN OPINION i thot aviation had moved away from such attitudes 1 set of rules for all manner of men,all our lives we have always relied on trg records that we understand in VK is fit for the dustbin,and BIGBOY DFO we understand is playing GOD,WE ARE watching if they call you beware oooo,even if you pass it doesnt matter if people fail .its news,passing too has become big time news.The parrot watches ON. ;precedence and posterity beckons beware .

Revnetwork

themajor,
I don't know if there's an aircrew fare, but the VK staff travel department can organise travel for you on North American to JFK. Doubt if they can do any further from JFK. Although they could probably get you a ticket via Europe to Toronto. Sorry I don't know anything about scheduling.
jagunmolu,
These people being demoted, were they captains in their last job on the B733?, did they apply for captain or FO?. What was the DFO's reason for the alleged demotion?
Just asking as I still don't understand what the issue is.

Dotun

I think you will find out that most of the current F/Os flying for VK were Captains in their former jobs. The new DFO has started command interview for most of these guys and I believe many of them will start flying on the left again very soon. More command interviews are scheduled to follow soon, I believe fresh cpl's holders will soon be taken on board to fill all all these new vacant seats on the right.

Regards
DMan

ZAZOO

Interesting, so what was the reason they had by offering them the right seat!
And must say it must have been a good one too to accept it!!!!
hey Dman was that you into abuja this morning
How Now
zaz

Revnetwork

Thanks Dman for the clarification.
As someone who has been involved in interviewing for job positions in Nigeria (not pilots), I can tell you that my personal experience was of people turning up with all manner of qualifications and experience.
1) Consider this, a ticketing manager for a Nigerian airline ( we'll call them XYZ) who had never seen a computer and had worked for the airline since they started. Their headquaters is in a city starting with K.
2) an engineer who when asked, "your company flies B722s, but we fly B733's, what documentation would you refer to if I asked you to change the windscreen of a B733?" answered, "I have 15 years experience on the B722 so I'll get on with it and use my experience"
I think it is alright to take on people who have flown with other airlines as captains, get them flying for VK as FO's with new SOPs etc, and then upgrade those who show the aptitude for the left seat.
I don't see anything wrong with that. And don't try telling me that a captain in airline XYZ is trained to the same level as in airline YYZ in the Nigerian context because I know it isn't so. We all know which airlines skimp on training but that shouldn't disqualify flightcrew from these airlines from working at VK
disclaimer: I don't know why these guys were offered the right seat, but using my own personal experience if I felt someone had the aptitude, I wouldn't employ them as manager, engineer etc, but would offer them a lower position and later assess their performance within my own system.

whitedove2

This issue of downgrading captains to f/os is a very contentious one. if its based on preservation of seniority in the airline as is practiced in virgin atlantic where there is no direct entry captain recruitment, that is understandable, but a situation like what obtains in vk where guys are interviewed as captains, assesed and passed as captains at gcat, trained at gcat with excellent trainig report and then downgraded to f/o on flimsy excuses, most especially the guys on the 340, could be very damaging to ones career and the pilot community as a whole.