Not sure it's just about being too posh to fly a smaller airframe. NJ management has showed more than once now over a decade that as soon as there is any form of dip in the market, the first thing they do is to lay off people. Doesn't matter if there is a "new management", the culture is there. With this in mind, being employable is critical. Flying a Global with 45 tons MTOM surely qualifies you for more jobs than a Phenom rating if you for any reason have to look for a new job. Flying a phenom inside the walls of NJ is of course great, but I know more than one who were let go around 2013-2015 with XLS ratings. 5+ years in the LHS at NJ were great as long as it lasted but once they were out they had to buy themselves a 737 rating to land a new job...in the RHS.

I agree, there's more to it than just personal taste and preference for aircraft. I wouldn't want to be one of the guys holding an A380 rating right now too, for example. Yet, that's an amazing and unique aircraft and most definitely not "small" so it must not be about that. Covid was a nice eyeopener, in many ways. Some get out of airlines, some do the opposite, some change aircraft type to a more popular one for job-hunting purposes or some do not want to sacrifice most of their family-time for earn-money-time like they used to do before anymore. We have to think 3-dimensional now. Just looking at one aspect and 'going for it' is not going to help you in the future unfortunately.

Ha, "too posh" was great to fish for comments, it worked! :)

Of course those ratings are not worth a lot on the market outside of Netjets. Nowhere will anyone pay you 120k EUR per year as a captain on a Phenom/Citation XLS. I am on a large cabin (not Global) type, but still not worth that much, as it is some kind of exotic plane and the pilot market is rather saturated on that type. After getting laid off last year, I was ready for being unemployed for 2 years, such is life. And, yes, it is true that the company seems to get nervous quickly when a financial crisis happens. The case last year was different though. I cannot and will not comment too much on it. In general the company is and was in good shape and we did not have surplus aircraft&crew, it was just a stupid decision, luckily it was reversed quickly. In 2010 we had 160+ aircraft for a market that only supported 90 to 100. A different ballgame.

PS: type ratings for biz jets are forbiddingly expensive. When you want to go for the airlines and you have to pay for rating, it's usually very, very cheap. B737 or A320? 13,000 EUR. Bizjet? 40,000 EUR....

Could be the prospect of up to 10 years RHS - especially if you have been a Captain before!

Pretty sure COVID won’t change that, keeping in mind, that the aviation business in general seems to be picking up quicker than anticipated. Virgin, Emirates etc pp. have started recalling people. BA and others will follow pretty soon….

Sorry I wasn't clear with what I meant. I meant that an aircraft with a weight of around 50 tons would qualify you for more options than a phenom/XLS type of weight. Not meaning a Global/Challenger rating would give you any jobs itself... With pic time on a Global you could even qualify as DEC for many low cost ops in the weight class of a Boeing/Airbus (when market permits). That's difficult with a XLS rating...

Hi Moonwalker,

but actually, this is true. A rating on a Global or Gulfstream will give you some freelance or even full time contracts with reasonable pay, while the smaller fleets will not leave you in a good position. The average salary for a light jet is considerably lower than what Netjets pays its crews. That's why I like the company, you make the same basic salary, no matter what fleet you are on. And: the smaller your plane, the higher you bonus will be, because without APU and without FA, a factor is applied and the bonus will be quite a bit higher than what the guys and girls on the attended fleets get as extra. This is quite unique and I think that it is absolutely fair.

First Indoc course is due to be in Dec, so the team will have to get it's skates on if selecting crew with a 3 month notice period.

"Sorry I wasn't clear with what I meant. I meant that an aircraft with a weight of around 50 tons would qualify you for more options than a phenom/XLS type of weight. Not meaning a Global/Challenger rating would give you any jobs itself... With pic time on a Global you could even qualify as DEC for many low cost ops in the weight class of a Boeing/Airbus (when market permits). That's difficult with a XLS rating..."


Sorry but that is totally wrong and a mistake many make.

I was flying a GV for many years and it qualified me for no other position bar another GV later when it came down to it. No one cares what you have been doing, only what current type you have for the job.

No-one wants to spend on training so whatever job is going you need a current rating with very recent hours to get a look in.

Hours and experience on heavy long range exec jets mean nothing beyond a type job you are applying for.

And just so you know... all the small/mid jet jobs are in Europe. The Long range jet jobs are in China and beyond.

It all depends. I know easyJet used 50t for non type rated DECs in the last years, of course they still required the DECs to pay for the rating themselves, albeit with the possibility to pay if from their salary in installments. That said, it is unlikely to see that again in the next few years.

For all NJE pilots posting here, many thanks for the infos.
I am still waiting for the outcome of my application but i was wondering if there is any info available regarding interview questions/simulator scenarios, and also if any ideia of what type of Aircraft/Simulator for those who make it to the sim?
PM are very welcome :ok:

Safe flights to all of you!

Hi Boomless,
I am not part of the interview team but reckon the sim scenario will involve hand flying an SID and I think a 2D approach or an ILS. Expect some sort of scenario that will involve displaying captaincy / airmanship (can we still use that word or is it airpersonship now?) such as low fuel, diversion, pax problem. For the interview no idea but there should be the usual questions on tech, performance, met, customer service and CRM plus some sort of HR input (are you prepared to move house to be within 1 hour of gateway, are there family concerns with 5 nights away, your attitude to frequent short notice changes for example). No idea of which aircraft for the sim - probably depends on what is available but fairly sure it will be a business jet, not an Airbus or Boeing but no promises!
I don't want to give away too much otherwise that negates the whole interview process.
Good luck to all - looking forward to having some fresh blood on the line.

Hi Mike,

Thank you so much for your reply and precious information.
Sounds like pretty straight forward process, this topics (Airmanship, CRM, problem solving scenarios, customer service oriented) are in fact the most relevant and makes perfect sense to evaluate the candidates on this.
Again, thank you for sharing this with us! That´s true fellowship :ok:

No answer from recruitment here either. Hoping to become a part of NJE, heard a lot of good things about the company. Good luck to all.

Wondering as well when the first responses go out, or if people are just staying quiet when they did 😂

thats tends to be the practice around here. Makes sure they don’t get bombarded with DM’s

Hi everyone, does somebody have an idea as how much of a mandatory requirement is the PBN Training Certificate/PBN licence endorsement during the NJE selection process?

On Kura website it was listed as a "desirable", not mandatory, but later on in the text it seemed as a mandatory requirement again.
Currently I only have a valid typerating (ME/IR, 70t. JET) on my licence without PBN and LVO endorsements. However it was on my licence in the past while I was operating for a previous company. That said it should be only a matter of few approaches during a possible T/R.
Thanks for any input and fingers crossed for all in the NJE selection :ok:

Hi GoatriderClassic,

I am not sure of this but, i have the idea that PBN license endorsement is related to the type where you had the proficiency check that included RNP Approaches exercises.
Once you change type, you loose the privilege to operate RNP Approaches, CAA will not endorse PBN on your new type rating license, unless you practice RNP APP again during the new type rating.
Did you fly a different type on previous company? If its the same type, did you practice RNP during the OCC simulators for the new company?
Again, this is just my guess, my advice is to check with your training dep or CAA.
Nevertheless, i understood according to the Kura website, its a "desirable" requirement and a new type rating in NJE or elsewhere, they can easily add some RNP APP on your simulators profiles and tick it in the box, i wouldn't worry to much about it.

According to the FAQ the "Online Interview and Document Verification" should have started 20th september. That means it is ongoing for 8 days already. Let's see, I have not received anything yet.

Yeah, FAQs also says we will all know by Friday next week.

Is that because you counted 14 days from the closing day of application?

The "You can expect to hear the outcome of the selection process within 10-14 days" part is only after stage 3 I believe, which is going to start at 24th of October.