Info about China

[Mof]

Hi all,

I´d like anybody helps me to get info about China. I´m a low hour pilot and i can´t wait a job in my seat.

It would be great if anybody is able to give me any list or link about chinese airlines.

Do you know if I can fly there with JAA Licence (Frozen ATPL)?

Thank you in advance.

Mof.:ok:

[Gooneybird]

How's your Mandarin?

I'm not at all sure if there are any low hour ex-pats in mainland China but I seriously doubt it.

CAL are Taiwan based and their minimum is 1500 hours.

Do an instructor rating, and get some hours before venturing abroad. I'm not being high handed, it's well meant advice.

[sony]

Here is a Low Timer in Mainland China. Tons of press coverage about her.


By Federica Bianchi
The Standard, Hong Kong
March 14, 2005

Daniela Schmidt's newly-obtained commercial pilot license appeared to be of little use after Swissair went bankrupt four years back leaving hundreds of experienced pilots competing for jobs at struggling European airlines.

But China's fast developing economy has given the 25-year-old Swiss a new opportunity as she becomes its first foreign female commercial pilot at the country's first privately-held airline.

For the startup Okay Airways, based in northern Tianjin, the move to recruit young, but eager foreign fliers gives it a chance to compete in the domestic aviation industry, now dominated by three state-backed behemoths.

Schmidt followed her Dutch boyfriend to China last year even though she did not speak or read Putonghua and had never visited the country. ``I didn't think I could find work in China,'' she said. ``But China is giving me an opportunity to fly that I wouldn't have otherwise.'' She is the only woman among six foreign pilots that Okay Airways has recruited as co-pilots amid a local shortage.

The shortage of pilots comes as growth in China's air travel is expected to stay robust. Airbus estimates China will need to order 1,790 passenger and cargo jets, or US$230 billion (HK$1.8 trillion) worth, in the next 20 years. Over a 10-year period, China's passenger and freight traffic should rise about 9 percent annually.

``China is short of captains and co-pilots. We offer young foreign pilots an opportunity to grow,'' Okay chairman and president Liu Jieyin said. He estimated China will be short of some 8,000 pilots in the next 10 years.

Besides Schmidt, the others are a Chinese-Canadian, a Swiss and four pilots from Hong Kong, aged from 25 to 30. They have one thing in common - they have obtained a pilot's license in their home countries but can't find work there.

``A lot of trained pilots in the West can't find an opportunity to put some experience under their belt, while we in China are short of co-pilots, captains and even technicians,'' Liu said.

That makes pilots, who have finished their training, but need more practice to improve their skills, a good fit for China's aviation industry, Liu said, adding that he intends to recruit more foreign pilots in coming months.

But the strategy is also about cost for startup carriers such as Okay Airways, which - with just six leased Boeing 737 aircrafts - is entering a market controlled by giants led by Air China, China Southern Airlines and China Eastern Airlines.

Experienced foreign pilots, a common feature of Middle Eastern airlines like Dubai-based Emirates Airlines, are too expensive for China's smaller airline companies.

These young Okay pilots will take a pay cut. They will receive a salary of about 20,000 yuan (HK$18,860) a month - higher than the 11,000 yuan that Air China offers its co-pilots, but well below any European standard.

But Schmidt's enthusiasm is undimmed. ``I would fly for less, as long as I can fly,'' she said. ``It's been my goal since I have been 15.''

Schmidt's debut is expected in two months, after she completes the training on a Boeing 737-900, the first jet that Okay has leased from South Korea.

On Friday, when Okay Airways' maiden flight takes off from Tianjin to Kunming in the south - one of four routes it is licensed to fly - Schmidt will be in the cockpit watching.

The airline is an experiment altogether. After restructuring China's aviation industry in recent years, Beijing gave the nod last year to allow small private airlines to set up in response to the growing passenger and route demand.

But regulatory restraints may limit the potential of these start ups.

Okay is the first to receive a license from the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China. Another three, Shanghai-based Spring International Airlines, Chengdu-based Eagle Airlines and Huaxia Airlines in the Gansu province, are awaiting their licenses

[cub71]

And how is the possibility for a left seat job for a guy with 4000 hrs in the right seat on MD-80 and B737NG ?

[Gooneybird]

"China’s booming commercial aviation industry is taking off more rapidly than the country can train pilots, and so airlines are being allowed to recruit foreigners for the first time. At least 100 European pilots have been hired by Hainan Airlines, Shenzhen Airlines, Sichuan Airlines and Okay Airways, China’s first private operator, this year. More are expected."

Well that'll teach me to reply to soon. However I still think they're talking about 'qualified pilots' as pilots with ratings on the appropriate aircraft types.

[flying eagle]

I have tried to find Okay Airways homepage but without any luck.
Does anyone have some info regarding homepages on Chinas privat airlines?

Thank you.

regards.:O

[Mof]

Hi all again,

Sony,

News like that makes I think my goal could be possible there. Thanks.


Flying eagle,

I think the homepage of Okay airlines is www.okair.net. I have seen it in a photo of the first airplane of the company, but I can´t open it. Always I have a fault with this homepage.

Anybody knows its address or any email to contact with them?


Gooneybird,

In Spain, It´s so difficult to find a job as an instructor (the same situation as a pilot). For this reason, I am trying to get info and then think whether it´s a good option to leave my job and try to find the best for me there.

Maybe, this is a little bit crazy, but I think the could be closer there than here.


Anyway, thanks at all.

Mof.