Vietnam Airlines & Vietnam or Taiwan (Merged).

[contractor63]

Hi fellows,

Could somebody give any comments which place is better to live and work as A320 driver.

[dai chon doi]

not even close.vietnam any day. more relaxed enviroment etc. especially compared to some of the taiwanese carriers.

[DontPanic_DontPanic]

Hey Contractor.... If it is any help; at the moment we have very senior managers from CAAV ( Viet CAA) here for some training and bilateral talks with us on simulators etc and the overwhelming driving force for them, at least as far as ATC goes, is SAFETY. They don't care what it costs to provide the safest service they can cos the government pours in the money. Not exaclty typical of todays market forces but comforting to know. When talking about Vietnamese Airlines it seems that it is the same philosophy so, to me as an ex line pilot and controller, that would be an important factor. Having said all that I have no experience or information about Taiwan so can make no comment or comparison.

[Dream Land]

Anything to do with A330's?

D.L.

[LindbergB767]

It is depending where you are coming from
Are you already an expat, are U married, do U have kids
Because if U want to live there with a family the housing can be between 500 to 2000 US depending of your taste
Schooling is quite expensive
If you are single it is a great place to work, beautiful girl and a very nice night life
If you are an FO and expect an upgrade be careful because so far some FO have been there almost 4 years now and none were upgraded
A letter was issued last week from Vietnam Air that they will upgrade next year but it is because many guys including 5 ATR 72 Captains are leaving as well as at least one FO 777 and some A320 FO
D ont forget that with VN you are on contract with Epail, Ristworth or Parc
If you go there go with Parc you have more chance to have some support

[jetset]

Why not india?

It should be considered, generally better money..

[Mack Tuck]

I have just been to Vietnam for a look before applying as DEC and liked what I saw. Would like some extra info if possible.
1. Are the contracts purely commuting or is it possible/desirable to have family there and if so what are the english schools like for 8 and 9 year olds?
2. What kind of accommodation can one expect, i.e. apartment or villa and is it paid for by the company? Which district would it be in?
3. Are cars expensive to buy?
4. What is staff travel like on VN and other carriers; I see they dont have ZED fare agreements. Can relatives use staff travel?
5. Which recruitment company is best to go through?
Thanks for any help offered.

[Aikon]

Just to add an extra question here. Hope you don't mind.

For those who have their contract renewed, be it with Parc or Rishworth, would you be kind enough to share with us here how is the contract like? Is it the same as previous term? or is it worse than previous term? or is it of no change? Thanks.

[captaan]

if u have choice
then why taiwan?

from vietnam any way u can tour taiwan
:p :p :p

[alatnariver]

It's about a year that I left VN from a A320 contract, so I don't know how it is there at present, but I think I can help you out with some answers.

1. Yes it was possible to bring your wife and kids with you to SGN. It's mostly a question if they like it or not. I was on my own as most of the pilots were in those days. Regarding the schools the only thing I know is that the fees are quite high.

2. Accomodation wasn't provided. Each pilot had to find his own accomodation wether being it an apartment or a house. I guess with a villa you mean a house. Don't expect SGN to be as stylish as DXB. SGN is a huge city and the traffic is very dense. This will mostly limit the area you should cosider for housing or you might end up driving more than 1 hour each way easiliy.

3. Well buying a car was a special thing. Most people used motorbikes to get around. Buying a car is not a problem, but I don't have any info about prices. The problem is driving. As mentioned earlier traffic is very dense and you can't compare Vietnam traffic with traffic in other western countries. To make it short, it's just cahotic as it can be. Imagine that driving a car in SGN is like swiming between thousands of moto bikes. Motorbikes and taxis, which are very cheap, are the means of getting around.

4. ID travel and especially the so called confirmed tickets on rotation was a big issue. VN basicaly didn't have any real ID travel. You were entiteled to a couple of ID tickets for yourself and family members, but only on VN! So there is no interlining available.

5. That's a personal choice.

Hope this helps. As I mentioned before, everything is based on my personal experience one year ago.

[alatnariver]

@ DontPanic_DontPanic

The problem for CAAV and Vietnam Airlines is, that you can't buy safety of the shelf!

In other words, they are heading moneywise in the right direction but regardless how much money they are willing to spent, as long as they don't solve some of the major problems, having mostly to do with culture and party thinking, they will always have more or less big safety problems.

Don't get fooled by the nice and polite guys you meet. Keep in mind that they are always smiling and are always polite, but evrything is ruled by the party and their culture. I have been there and I have seen it, but I hope it will change some day as the people are realy nice and friendly.