Well said all
 

I must apologise for seeming to hi-jack this thread and make it not what the original poster intended, concern for his regional airline, and the diminishing experience levels associated with exodus. The points I was trying to make are;

Exodus is not new, not localised, it is universal - but it costs dearly.

Does anyone outside the pilot community see this?

The Supply vs. Demand equation is not solved by reducing ad absurdum the minimum pilot requirements, that only adds more burden to the training captains. Also it effectively chokes your recruitment, because QFLink are offering cadet pay for all new entrants, therefore paying peanuts reaps what it sows.

What will it take to change?


God forbid an accident. Hopefully sanity and discussion will prevail.

Ned.

Simple Really

Get rid of the Higher School Certificate requirement..

How amazing, I get more of a tingle and warm feeling thinking about that ex Cathay capt moving back home with his wife to begin a life of relative normalcy in the Western Australian outback, than that of someone doing the opposite and moving overseas to some dusty sandpit or urban stink hole.

Good on em, I can imagine it will be defining moment in their lives and one they won't regret!

Really?

The HSC thing again?

With another pilot shortage looming on the horizon, is Qlink resorting now to subliminal messages to recruit new pilots?! Check out the latest Macca's commercial being shown on the Brissie tennis. At the very end of the commercial where the scene pans out from the Macca's car park, there goes a Qlink Dash8-400 "quietly" taking off in the top left corner in the background! Very clever recruiting at the burger stand, boys and girls!
Eat here or take away?! Oh, wait a minute... maybe a possible change again in the catering policy is what is really looming here!! Very clever again.

Or perhaps the editors forgot to take out that Dash in the shot during post production? :ugh:

Re exodus - I would say that the network will suffer some 'hiccups' but I don't think we'll see the same level of recruiting we saw from DJ back in '08 read - cancellation of flights.

Looks like a Classic anyway...if it were a Q400, you wouldn't see it in the shot for very long :E

Fuel-Off :ok:

And where is this pilot shortage? And when is it going to happen again?

Seems to me that JB would know where his next intake of pilots will be from. Sure to make a dent.

Virgin isn't expanding its Jet fleet... It is expanding it's byproduct "Skywest" and I'm not too sure many current turbo prop drivers would leave just to go fly another boat.

Maybe it's not only then the "shinny jet" syndrome but also a "painted tail" syndrome...

I don't know about "shinny" (sic) jet syndrome. You'll probably find that they are leaving because they are tired of working for the Qantas group (and enduring the way it treats its staff). Working for QLink used to be reasonable pay with a good lifestyle. That was why I stuck around for so long.

However, with successive EBA's the remuneration remained static (no, went backwards IMO), while lifestyle definitely went backwards.

That's the main reason I left.

I couldn't be happier with the choice I made (and the opportunity given me). I now have a lifestyle far superior to what I had :)

Good luck to all the QLink pilots on hold awaiting a start. You won't regret it :ok:

I'll second what Jarse said.

I spent 5 years at QLink and initially I thought I would be there until retirement, but when lifestyle disappeared, so did I.

The move may have been a short term reduction in pay, but long term it will be much better with better lifestyle. It is not unusual for me to get 15 days off per roster.

Whilst there is a little difference in salary, I wouldn't imagine too many would be keen to go from from one turboprop to another, unless the new basing was preferable.

*COUGH combined seniority COUGH*.

3 Year Captain Salary (FY2012-13):
ATR $108,908
Q400 $103,700
Q300 $96,918

The HSC thing is an interesting one, a good number of the senior guys and girls do not have the HSC ( employed prior to the change of ownership ), and they don't seem to have an issue doing the job.

Completing year 12 as a mature student is pretty easy, there are many training organisations that offer correspondence, one week intensive courses or night TAFE.

Josh, if you're talking combined seniority between Eastern/Sunstate, I was on the negotiating committee in 2007/8 (from memory), and we came to an agreement way back then.

The meetings were facilitated by the company (to its credit), however I believe to this day that NK and MD (privately) did not think the two pilot councils would ever reach an agreement, as there previously had been quite some antipathy between them until now.

Some time after the final proposal was presented to the company, we were advised that the process would go no further. I can't remember what the reason was (or if any was in fact, given).

It's seven years later................... What has changed?

Virgin not expanding its jet fleet, how did they get to 99 from 80 18 months ago if they are not expanding? They have been adding more than retiring, equating to a net 10-15% capacity increase by seats.

Virgin not expanding it's jet fleet....?? Be patient, it might be a short wait!!

Role on....

Markis10,

I said, "Virgin isn't expanding their jet fleet"... Not Virgin 'hasn't expanded their jet fleet."

The wheel has stopped or perhaps grossly slowed down in Virgin.

They have rebranded.
Painted aircraft.
Changed uniforms.
Bought 330's.
Established a business class.
Focused more on cabin service.

Now, it has to make money and prove it's been worth it before there will be any more significant re-investment. And it'll happen! I'm not saying it won't. But the dudes in the right hand seat better get comfortable.

All the immediate future expansion in Virgin, will be on the ATR fleet and through Tiger. Perhaps LWOP from Virgin to go take up a command at Tiger is an option for current Virgin FO's?

Layovers? Try living here!

Time to revive this thread? 50 cadets to QF this year. Quite a few of to Emirates and then there is the F100's in Perth and a trickle to Cathay. Going to be an interesting year!

Can't loose too many off to Perth. Heard that the numbers are upwards of 90 applying for a F100 slot. Interesting as that is nearly a fifth of the pilot base.

I always find the numbers thrown around in the crew room and here on PPRuNe to be over inflated.
90 applying for Perth? I doubt there are 90 FOs in QLink with ATPLs since Part 61, and I doubt the Senior Captains or Qantas Cadet Captains would apply, and only a few junior Captains would see it as a worthwhile move. Any pilot chasing a new airline would be waiting to see what happens at Mainline, or already on the way to the sandpit, neither of which requires jet time.
90 pilots without the required minimums however….