planning to be in china need suggestion

[TSRABECOMING]

Hi I am a bus driver and planning to work in China. interested in Lucky air in Kunming or west air in Chongqing. I am after some info for working and living conditions there in general or anyone can give me more specific for those airlines.
thanks,
TS

[boocs]

Visit the cities first!!

b.

[Greenlights]

suggest the same.
a couple of weeks or more before signing anything is the best option...

[runway067]

Kunming looks like nice city in relation to other Chinese ones. At least because of high elevation the air is better. I am with west air now because they offer 15/15 roster. In these 15 days they can fly you up to about 88 hours legally. In reality it is about 75. In any airline that you look into the schedule and destinations for foreign pilots is almost the same. West air is low cost airlines so expect 4 leg day pretty often with flight time about 5.30 to 07.00.
Cheers

[USMCProbe]

I got subcontracted out from BCA to Lucky for 6 months and spend 4 of those in Kunming. For a secondary Chinese city, Kunming is OK. Air quality is good. Small expat section of town isn't bad. Schedules were 2-4 legs a day, 5-7 hours a day. Hainan group (includes Lucky Air) runs a slick operation.

Kunming is very windy and turbulent. I flew the bus in and out of Kunming and was happy for it. I am now flying the 737NG. If I was flying one out of Kunming I would get 4-8 flap overspeeds per day.
I never worked for West but they tried to recruit a few of us. They seemed clueless.

Given a choice between Lucky, BCA, Tianjin, West, and Hainan Air, I would choose BCA 1st, Tianjin or Lucky 2nd, West I am not sure where as I don't know much about it, and Hainan 99th. That was not a typo. Hainan would be 99th.

my two cents

[gatorman330]

USMC knows his s**t, i am at BCA which is still the best... for now! colleagues who work for tianjin have tried to jump to BCA but the company will not release your licence, you are effectively their property, its the way it is in china so do your home work, check the cities, can you live there??? personally i think kunming is a s**thole, sorry john, good luck wherever you end up, 6 years here is like 20 years elsewhere financially you just have to live with the decision you make. Sichuan guys seem happy enough and they are opening a sanya base soon i think when you coming back john, we need more cricket players:)

[USMCProbe]

Working on in Gatorman. I have my LOA request sitting in my V-file waiting for the right moment.

Chongqiing and Chengdu have really bad pollution everyday. I can't tell you how many approaches I did into both to minimums due to smog. I would take Kunming over either.

Sichuan is a decent place to work. I know a couple pilots that worked their. Sichuan with a Sanya base would be good.

Hainan Group (not the airline itself) really does run a slick operation. All the low cost subsidiaries are similar, and interconnected.