Rice Pudding
6th Dec 2009, 05:54
It seemed odd to read that the company are advertising command vacancies on the B777, but only for 747-400 captains. Why are they breaking from normal practice and not upgrading the experienced F/O's in normal order of seniority ? Well, its complicated, but also very well planned, and it goes right back to when we were offered COS 08. And it’s largely about your housing allowance.
It has been very obvious to everyone that at the current rate of planned expansion there is a high demand for crew at all levels on the B777. Most F/O's who are expecting a command soon, have been advised that this will not happen, and they may have to wait another year or two. Instead, the company is going to take captains from the -400. An odd turn of events ? Well maybe not. You see its highly unlikely that out based crews will come to HK to take up those commands. It will be mainly HK based -400 captains who volunteer for the fleet change, and in turn, this will lead to a shortage of captains on the -400. At the same time, the -400 has been undergoing a steady increase of freighter work, with freighter conversions and orders of more -400 freighters to come. In short, the -400 will become the new classic fleet.
The company have denied that the Air China / Cathay freighter operation will lead to jobs being taken. And this is very plausible when you consider why: It’ll lead to more jobs as long as the flights themselves are operated and crewed by our own freighters. This was pre planned, and contractually, most of us are now obliged to operate freighters if rostered to do so.
The obvious thing to do then is to advertise for freighter commands in 6 – 12 months time, and upgrade senior F/O’s from the B777 or Airbus in order of seniority onto the freighter. Many of these will be Hong Kong based, and will offer no housing allowance and a lower freighter salary. But, as in the past, when promotions slow down, there will be a steady supply of F/O’s willing to take the promotion anyway, albeit on a lower pay scale, without the housing. The only catch is that the requirement for promotion has not slowed down, so there was a need to create the illusion that they had slowed. Clever ? Very !
So, what are the alternatives ? Well, if you are a senior F/O who expected to do your command about now, you could threaten to stay put and accept by-pass pay - right ? That’s fine, as long as you didn’t sign over to COS 08, and as long as many captains didn’t either. You see the company already thought of that, and as you might now remember, COS 08 is all about removing or limiting by pass pay. This was not just a lucky stroke on the company’s part, they carefully planned it.
You may also have pondered why the company are now offering cadetships to expats. After all, There has always been a steady stream of willing and very experienced expats to fill the S/O and F/O seats. But it makes more sense when you look further down the track. Right now, a new expat cadet costs the company more, but gets a much reduced housing allowance. In a year or two the company only has to reduce the length of the cadet course to say 4 weeks for a pilot with say 5000 hours experience. In effect a “short course”, for those that meet certain experience requirements. It would still be a cadetship, but with either no, or greatly reduced housing allowance. And then they will have quickly gone full circle, back to a four week intro course, under another name, but with a huge cost savings.
It has been very obvious to everyone that at the current rate of planned expansion there is a high demand for crew at all levels on the B777. Most F/O's who are expecting a command soon, have been advised that this will not happen, and they may have to wait another year or two. Instead, the company is going to take captains from the -400. An odd turn of events ? Well maybe not. You see its highly unlikely that out based crews will come to HK to take up those commands. It will be mainly HK based -400 captains who volunteer for the fleet change, and in turn, this will lead to a shortage of captains on the -400. At the same time, the -400 has been undergoing a steady increase of freighter work, with freighter conversions and orders of more -400 freighters to come. In short, the -400 will become the new classic fleet.
The company have denied that the Air China / Cathay freighter operation will lead to jobs being taken. And this is very plausible when you consider why: It’ll lead to more jobs as long as the flights themselves are operated and crewed by our own freighters. This was pre planned, and contractually, most of us are now obliged to operate freighters if rostered to do so.
The obvious thing to do then is to advertise for freighter commands in 6 – 12 months time, and upgrade senior F/O’s from the B777 or Airbus in order of seniority onto the freighter. Many of these will be Hong Kong based, and will offer no housing allowance and a lower freighter salary. But, as in the past, when promotions slow down, there will be a steady supply of F/O’s willing to take the promotion anyway, albeit on a lower pay scale, without the housing. The only catch is that the requirement for promotion has not slowed down, so there was a need to create the illusion that they had slowed. Clever ? Very !
So, what are the alternatives ? Well, if you are a senior F/O who expected to do your command about now, you could threaten to stay put and accept by-pass pay - right ? That’s fine, as long as you didn’t sign over to COS 08, and as long as many captains didn’t either. You see the company already thought of that, and as you might now remember, COS 08 is all about removing or limiting by pass pay. This was not just a lucky stroke on the company’s part, they carefully planned it.
You may also have pondered why the company are now offering cadetships to expats. After all, There has always been a steady stream of willing and very experienced expats to fill the S/O and F/O seats. But it makes more sense when you look further down the track. Right now, a new expat cadet costs the company more, but gets a much reduced housing allowance. In a year or two the company only has to reduce the length of the cadet course to say 4 weeks for a pilot with say 5000 hours experience. In effect a “short course”, for those that meet certain experience requirements. It would still be a cadetship, but with either no, or greatly reduced housing allowance. And then they will have quickly gone full circle, back to a four week intro course, under another name, but with a huge cost savings.