Can Jetstar pilots transfer to Qantas as F/O

[megab22]

Hi i was just wondering as i am choosing the jetstar cadetship because the a320 is my dream Aircraft to fly but i do want to move on to other aircraft in the Qantas fleet eventually. I think jetstar pilots cant tranfer to qantas but have to apply? if i gain enough hours and experience can i move on to be a f/o for Qantas or to i have to be a trainee s/o?

[Blueskymine]

You start off an SO and bid for vacancies and promotions as they are advertised or available.

[Ollie Onion]

Also beware that it is not an automatic right to transfer, when advertised you have to apply and go through an abbreviated selection process to get a job offer at Qantas. You then have to be released by Jetstar, not everyone who applies is accepted and Qantas aren't obligated to offer the positions internally.

[AviationReviewWA]

Isn't the cadetship closed at the moment?

[megab22]

Isn't the cadetship closed at the moment?
My apologies I didn’t mean choosing. But I am putting myself in a situation where I am applying for the Jetstar Cadetship soon for the next years following. As the a320 is the dream aircraft I want to fly. But when I think should I go for the qantas future pilots or the Jetstar Cadetship. And I am living in Melbourne

[Stretch06]

If you are successful on the Jetstar Cadetship, you more than likely will find yourself on the 787 as an SO prior to the A320.

[AviationReviewWA]

My apologies I didn’t mean choosing. But I am putting myself in a situation where I am applying for the Jetstar Cadetship soon for the next years following. As the a320 is the dream aircraft I want to fly. But when I think should I go for the qantas future pilots or the Jetstar Cadetship. And I am living in Melbourne
IMO I would choose any cadetship over the qantas program because personally, guaranteed employment upon successful completion is pretty important.

[tio540]

Fortunately, Qantas do not understand syntax either.

[waren9]

well, he hasn't put the u in qantas, so there's that.

[Stretch06]

No guarantee of employment at the Jetstar one either.

[LTBC]

No guarantee of employment at the Jetstar one either.

No, but at least you get to apply for the job before starting rather than after you've finished!

[ECAMACTIONSCOMPLETE]

The 150 or so cadets that have finished the course successfully to date have all been employed as 787 S/Os or A320 F/Os. The wait time for employment at the moment is also very low with the expansion of 3 crew flying requiring the S/O numbers in the airline to more than double. It is a very mature course in the sense that it has been running for 6 or 7 years now so you go into it knowing what to expect, whereas the Qantas course still has many unknowns (mainly, where you will actually be employed at the end of the course, if at all).

Many cadets have done 2-3 years at Jetstar then moved on to Qantas, many cadets have chosen to stay and some have left the group to go to EK, CX or Air NZ. In terms of starting an airline career, it’s an awesome opportunity.

Back to the original question, no matter how many hours you have on the A320, every new hire pilot at Qantas is employed as an S/O. You go to the bottom of the QF seniority list, the only thing that carries over from JQ is your years of service for long service leave and staff travel. Lately it has only taken 6-12 month to get a transfer to 737 F/O.

if your ambition is to join qantas from the Jetstar cadet program, the only extra thing you’ll need (in addition to 1500 copilot hours) is an extra 50 command hours on top of the 100 you get from the cadet program. Most guys have simply hired a 172 to accumulate these hours. Might cost a little bit but a worthwhile investment to get to where you want to go.

[Lookleft]

So if as a Jetstar cadet you need an extra 50 hours of command time to be eligible for QF how do the future QF cadets qualify? Do they get the extra 50 hours included in their cadet program? The whole thing is a bit ridiculous when you can be an A320 F/O without the required command hours but you can't be a S/O. As to the maturity of the Jetstar cadet program it is still run the same way as it was when it was immature. Jetstar have very little involvement with the cadets during the program and if there are no positions available then its a case of "we will let you know when we need you'" which can take up to 2 years and you are still required to pay back the cost of the program during that time. The QF program is not up and running yet but at least it will be conducted under the name of QF and I would guess that QF will provide more input and support than JQ do with their course. Its not surprising that JQ are only getting 2-3 years service from their cadets and it won't be surprising if the JQ program just gets folded into the QF program. JQ stopped their cadet program for 2 years so if they could offload it onto QF they will.

[ECAMACTIONSCOMPLETE]

Those are all reasonable points, however one thing that you said which is slightly incorrect is that you need to start paying back the course before employment, if a delay to employment with Jetstar is incurred. As the course is now entirely covered by fee help (cap increased to $150,000 for aviation) repayment of the course doesn’t occur until the minimum wage for repayment of government education loans is reached (around $50,000 per annum).

If you find yourself waiting for employment with JQ and you choose to work and earn the minimum repayment amount, then sure, you’ll start repaying the course fees, as is the case with any student debt. But like I said, the past few courses have incurred little delay.

The Qantas cadet program is still being run by a 3rd party contractor (FTA now, the first one already pulled out), so while it will be qantas branded and may have some more input from QF, I don’t think that particular aspect of the program will make it leaps and bounds better than the JQ program.