Jobs in Spain

[AICUS]

I am currently operating A320 for a well known national carrier in northern Europe.

However we are seriously considering a move to Spain for a change of lifestyle.

Just wondering if anyone has had a similar experience and would like to share it. At the moment i have 2500 hours which will become well over 3000 (closer to 3500) by the end of the year. Almost all that time is multicrew/ multijet time. Any good, bad or indifferent stories much appreciated.

Currently learning Spanish and will have a good level of conversational Spanish within the year so hopefully that might help, but is the industry down there a closed shop or are they open to having foreigners who speak the lingo? Money, T's and C's, etc much appreciated

[RogerIrrelevant69]

Well having only dipped my toe into Spanish aviation (did my CPL there about 4 years ago) I did however get to know two things:

1. Iberia was then very much a closed shop, you literally had to be related to someone in Iberia to get an interview. Maybe that's common knowledge, maybe not, maybe it's not true anymore, but it was then.

2. If you are flying a Spanish a/c you will be automatically expected to converse with ATC in Spanish. I know it's not ICAO but there you go! Some would argue thats bloody dangerous but as I get older and greyer I can only remember the nice things about Spain of which there are many.

[ATC83]

Get yourself in to easyjet mate....the Madrid base is expanding loads!:ok:

[LH2]

Hi there

just a few remarks on one of the posts above:

If you are flying a Spanish a/c you will be automatically expected to converse with ATC in Spanish

Not true, at all. I fly EC-regs myself and I am not expected to speak Spanish on the R/T or elsewhere. I have also been noticing an increasing number of Spanish pilots (mostly commercial but also some PPLs) who do their R/T in English, which I find very commendable considering that said language is not otherwise widely spoken in that country.

Of course, this might vary depending on where you are. Have you (roger) trained in Madrid by any chance?

I know it's not ICAO but there you go!

Matter of fact it is "ICAO". See the many posts about the subject here on Pprune, or check ICAO Doc. 4444 and the relevant national AIP.

Some would argue thats bloody dangerous

Again, done to death here. For the record I'm with the majority on this one and prefer English only, thank you very much. But we digress.

As for the original question, a number of pilots flying for the national companies are definitely not Spanish, judging by their accents on the R/T. I would say by all means give it a try--they can only say no.

[RogerIrrelevant69]

Trained in an around Jerez + Seville and as I say it was a few years ago but one's memory does not forget what I would consider my nearest (and only) near miss while joining to land caused entirely by sh!t poor ATC carried out in Spanish which was understood by neither me or my excellent instructor.

ICAO paragraph whatever you may say but I'm pretty sure that is not what I was taught. As you say this issue has been done to death here in the past.

But returning to my original point about Iberia, you had to know someone (maybe not a relative but that helped in two cases I knew of) on the inside with influence. The two I knew of were iterally waiting for the call to be told when to apply and to which desk their application was to land on.

Of course Iberia is only one Spanish airline, there are others.

[calypso]

The Spanish/english debate has raged for years. Fact is it is ICAO, what you where taught is not relevant, the only relevant thing is the regs. It may change one day but until then is the law of the land.

I would say that it will be a tall order to join Iberia, Spanair or Air Europa if you don't speak fluent Spanish. You will not pass the selection as it is mostly in Spanish and very competitive. On top of that you may need support from the inside or so they say.

On the bright side you will need no spanish or contacts at all to join EZY, Ryan (if you can bear the thought - I can't) and Vueling.