new recruiting grounds for CX
 

I heard CX are recruiting in Pakistan....why not India, read below some good candidates over there.

NEW DELHI: Imagine a person found misfit to drive a small car being allowed to get behind the wheels of a big truck. If that sounds scary, hear this. The aviation safety regulator has found that some trainees who failed to become co-pilots or qualify as commanders on single-aisle Boeing 737 on Air India's budget arm AI Express were taken by the parent company to fulfil their dream on the widebody Boeing 777 that flies long-haul routes.

All the pilots so favoured were sent on deputation from AI to AI Express. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) made this startling discovery when it audited the low-cost carrier (LCC) last September. "The records revealed that (two) captains failed (in AI Express)... during Instructor evaluation of DGCA (and were) recommended 200 hours of flying before the next attempt. These two were taken for a direct command on the widebodied Boeing-777 aircraft," the report says.

There are more shockers. "A P-2 (co-pilot) who failed in two attempts has now been taken up as P-2 (co-pilot) on Boeing-777, subsequently to be trained as commander on that type." And this one's scarier: "A pilot had a history of problems during landings (in AI Express) which were not addressed properly in training... it subsequently (led to) an incident with six bounces in a landing. This captain has also been taken up for command on Boeing-777 (in AI)."

If you wonder how such favouritism that compromises safety was allowed, here's the answer. AI Express was set as an LCC in 2004 under a separate licence but has over the years become a training ground aspiring pilots. (Insiders allege senior AI employees have used AI Express to fast-track the career of their pilot children.)

Fake pilot licence alert in India ... The Independent.. 23rd March 2011


India is checking the licences of all its airline pilots after at least four were found to be flying using fake documents.

Two pilots were arrested last week for using fake certificates to gain licences, including a pilot with national carrier Air India who falsified his qualifications.

The other two pilots were being investigated for irregularities in their licences.

The licences and other documents of all 4,000 pilots flying commercial aircraft in the country will be scrutinised, said Bharat Bhushan, director general of civil aviation.

A second pilot was arrested last week after damaging an aircraft while landing and a scrutiny of her papers showed she had used fake documents to get a licence, Mr Bhushan said.

"Fake licences are very few so there is no need to panic," he said.

Opposition MPs accused the government of failing to check corruption in granting licences and endangering the lives of thousands of travellers.


Civil Aviation Minister Vyalar Ravi told parliament last week that authorities had taken action against 57 pilots who reported for duty drunk over the past two years.

Ten were fired and some others had their licences suspended or were taken off the flying roster for short periods.

The Pakistani pilots turned CX down. Conditions not good enough. CX managers had a meeting with a bunch of SOs (rostered meeting), asking what needed to be done to attract more applicants. Answer: Better package. Rocket Science!

Also heard most of the RAF chappies who were to save the day are not coming. Also Emirates poaching higher-time iCadets from Adelaide.

Boeing now wondering how CX will crew the 777's on order.

'To your bonus', Richard, :D (with apologies to The Management)!

bunch of RAF guys actually came for second interview (party). Missed sched appointments by several hours and generally blew off the official part of the tour. Informal accounts put the party count at 9+. Guess you can do that when your BA job is already in your pocket and the CX package is ....... the party was good.

A TT cadet chucked it in only a month after arriving in HK from Adelaide, he was still in ground school. Shows how crap the package is and how worthless a P2X rating is.

Also heard a Canadian Icadet told CX to stuff it after a few months. They insisted he pay back all training costs( just shy of 400K), or they will not submit the necessary papers to HKIRD for him to clear out of HKG. (more scaremongering)

Last I heard he considered buying full fare on a different carrier and just leaving....

Seems like a very unlikely rumour, but if so:

Exactly what authority and capability does the company have to deny travel rights/detain someone?

And exactly how do they think they can ignore HKG laws by refusing to supply the IRD with whatever documentation they must provide?

Is this the same company that is in deep doodoo way over their heads after all these years of pretending that individual taxation issues are the individual's responsibility and they don't have to do anything ever?

As I said, Typical scaremongering from the company. They are bound by IRD rules and regulations, but that won't stop them from trying to strong arm a new Icadet into giving them more money

people leaving
 

While GMA claims to have recruited 200+ pilots last year, there has been no notable gain in pilot numbers in the last 3 months.

2509 pilots in Jan 12

2509 pilots in Oct 11

Total of 11 new SOs joined... Total of 3 new SOs resigned (or retired)...

Total of 8 FOs/CNs left/retired...

As NR likes to say, "Watch this space!"

The only thing that has saved the company from a massive crewing problem already is/was the downturn of the Asian and EU economies in 2011/12, particularly in the cargo market. The FOP management is very day-to-day. It is only a matter of time before they get caught with their pants down. No one gets lucky all the time.

They are in a lot of trouble. I know many guys that have been awarded 0 leave. I do not know anyone that has been awarded all their leave. Everyone I come across is intending to take their leave at some time this year as if the company will not give it to us there is another way to take it. Sick rate for 2012 will be through the roof, I can see flights being cancelled during school holidays. 2013, lots of guys will have 12 weeks of leave. The wheels are wobbling.

G Day Workers
 

Why are people working G days?

I know why, it's because of short-sighted greed.

Sure, you can make $10,000 by helping out (just wait until later in the month when they mess with your roster to take away that overtime).

Sure you can work a G day to ditch that unwanted split duty or RUH flight by helping out.

The truth is, you're only being asked to help because you are the cheap option. If you don't help out, they will have to pay someone on reserve to do it. (OMG, using reserve coverage to crew open flights - what a revolutionary idea!)

OR, even if you do believe that you're the ONLY one available, ask yourself how much a cancellation of even a 12 hr delay will cost them. I'm talking aircraft parking, hotels, missed connections, passenger compensation for delays & missed connections etc etc. Sort of makes the measly $10,000 you'll get sound pretty small.

Simple fact: NOTHING will change while people are helping them out.

And don't give me that cop-out about the Union not telling us to go to contract compliance. Learn to think for yourself!

By helping out, you are telling them you're happy with their conduct. The next time you are asked to help out, ask yourself if you're happy with the conduct of our management. Ask yourself if you're happy with roster instability. And when you ask yourself these questions, do it whilst you're looking the mirror, and be honest with yourself.

What I find absolutely astonishing is when a local guy helps out on a g day, also amazed by the expats, but a local really is shooting himself in the foot.

We are short of crew. Flights would be getting cancelled now or very very soon if no one helped.

The racial discrimination laws means you can't discriminate.

To crew aircraft they need to hire many new pilots and retain the ones they have already.

They are discovering that to hire new pilots in the numbers they require they will need to up the package.

Expat terms and conditions will not go up to fix this so there is only one thing they can do!!!!!!!!

They are going to have to hugely increase the new joiner package which means they will have to hugely increase the local package also. By helping out you are delaying, or if a fall in business is just around the corner you may never get a huge increase to your pay.

And some think our management are short sighted. :ugh:

Personally I hope the guys who accepted the iCadet job and (shock horror!) discovered it really is a sh!t sandwich have to pay CX every cent, nickel and dime. They asked for it and are now paying the price for this "opportunity".

And if they can't find the numbers in Pakistan they'll go elsewhere to find the cheapest option.

What a legacy TT! Great going RH.

broadband circuit

there is no one on reserve, they have all been called out. i have been watching the cover for some time. 4 captains, 4 f/o per fleet. check their realtime rosters and they're on flights. even when called out on reserve you have the option of 10 flights per fleet. happened to me last week on reserve. had my choice of 9 flights, they are desperate!

cz

Coke zero. You are sad! You have nothing better to do on a Sat night? You need a life mate!:{

The desperate need of pilots which was there in India between 2003-2008 that ended up getting a lot of experienced expats on the LHS and a lot of Newbies with 200 hrs on the RHS.

But a handful of them ended up committing fraud - now the entire pilot community in India has to pay for it.

Majority of Indian pilots have gone to countries like USA , AUS , CAN to get their CPL's and the standards of aviation training are good in these countries, and a Handful went to Philippines :ugh: as well.

But If CX did plan to recruit in India , they will surely end up with some keen , intelligent and skilled pilots.

And if they are really really desperate for Pilots they should reduce the "Application - to - Stage 1" Wait times from 6 months .. to maybe 1 Month.

Frogman

I am sad :( Can I have a cuddle ;)

It's not just pricks working G-days.....some can't even stay away today until the end of their leave!

It's been a while but I believe CX has previously offered to pay people to give up their leave.
Anyone remember the details of that because it is one of the last cards FOPS has to play?

Well make it worthwhile, if that is going to happen. Funny how a few years ago it was SLS, and now it might be offers to buy our leave back. Who manages the management?

'The Management' ?? Haven't heard from him/her for a while...

b.

The Management
 

Probably because he is flying his ar$e off like the rest of us.

Just heard from the man on the ground in NY that Newark has been postponed till end of year/early next year due lack of crew.

Wheels are only just hanging on for sure...

SIA recruiting indians for their Cadet Pilot Programme why CX does not want to go to India ?

Im sure that there are a few thousand desperate, jobless, well trained Indian Pilot's who will be happy to join the Cathay Pacific Cadet Pilot Programme. :}

Moscow flight has just been cut from 3 times a week to 2 times...due lack of crew!

The trick that SIA uses is that a cadet can be placed into SIA Cargo, Silkair or even Scoot today only AFTER he has been through the interview. So whilst the cadet may have the BIG dream of flying the 'cracked' winged A-380s, he might end up in Scoot with the Star Trek uniforms on a significantly diff pay scale, similarly with Cargo. The reactions by the general public in Singapore was as expected, up in arms with the notion of giving jobs to outsiders and not to locals. But these days, parents put their 150K into a sure thing like a university education providing security in a degree as opposed to a flying license, so go figure...no disrespect to Indians or Pakistanis etc...

I have a relative in NUS doing research about the vocational aspirations of young Singaporeans. Apparently a lot of young Singaporeans do not really aspire to be pilots as they are well aware of the ****ty deals a pilot gets as well as poor career progression. They rather go to the universities and get tertiary qualifications which will allow them to become their " own bosses " later in life. They are savvy and they know a pilot's life sucks!

We had an Indian SO one time, but for some reason she is no longer with us...

Kalistan
 

I know a guy my age in Singapore that has just done that exact thing!

True, but she was terminated quite a few years back. I believe she's now flying for a LCC in India.

Heard EWR was delayed because the shaky economy, and Moscow loads have been so low some flights have less than 100 pax.

Welcome to India...:D

http://www.pprune.org/south-asia-far...v-india-2.html

Confirmed during Fleet forum. CX Recruitment people off to India and Pakistan in the next two months.

Awesome! Can't wait to fly with Vish320 and CloudRipper!!
Those multi thousand hour DESOs of yesteryear had no prior experience so it's good to see RH etc have remedied the situation!:D

Trouble with Yaw Dampers now

EK tried recruiting in those regions along with a large number of regional jet Capts from the States and it has bitten them badly as a few years down the line many have failed or are unsuitable for command according to EK! That is from a recruitment manager in EK but who knows how true!

The Ryanairsation of Pilots T+C's continues worldwide....

CX don't care if the guys and girls they recruit today have issues with commands in 10-15 yrs from now as they see the writing on the wall, that is Beijing will own the whole thing by then and it will their problem. CX need Pilots now but to keep profits up and help bonuses /sale price of airline , they just want to fill the seats at the lowest possible cost. Only my opinion .

Will create a new reality when the CN or RQ needs a break and mister "I brought 80 hrs of flying experience with me" gets to mind the store.