I do agree with what you said. I was thinking that at 70 hours per month plus the bonus divided by 12 would be me at 150,000 HKD per month.

I'm married so not sure what my tax rate would be.

Those expenses , well my buddy found a nice place for 20,000 per month. Eating out will kill you no doubt about it. But 4-5000 a month for utitltes? That's insane!!

So after it's all said and done I would be lucky to save 10,000 USD per month.

I figured it would be nice to be rated on both Airbus and Boeing as I am still in young 40s.

Compared to back home, Frontier airlines starts you at 39 usd per hour which means your paycheck would be about 2500 a month take home USD the first year. 3 year upgrade and even then captains are barely making it over 100,000 USD per year

So which is truly better?

Maybe I should go back to mainland. All the 737 guys making well north of 20 grand a month. But also I like an easy schedule too.

I don't need the money so badly. What I'm trying to say is I'm neither rick or poor.

But the issue (having spent 7 years there I know what I'm talking about) is the mainland bs one needs to deal with from ATC to smoking copilots to ridiculous micromanagement at times from the company.

Try flying everyday with a young guy in the jumpseat and it gets soooo tiring in a 737.

You mentioned 70 hours in 12 days??? Or maybe I didn't read that right but It seems the pilots get decent blocks of time off.

Heard they might get 330 one day

True aviators only please!
 

A word from us, the Management:

Turkpilot, let us give you a few words to calm you down.

We have recognised Hong Kong as being the most expensive city in the world, so we found a solution.

We have started building a pilots' compound very close to the airport, where pilots will be able to live for a small deduction on their salaries. They will share their room with another pilot of their choice. There will be wifi on every floor, also bathrooms and kitchen to be used freely.

This will improve the feeling of 'brotherhood' and will improve CRM.

As we know you have some strings from your past lives (wife, kids, etc.), we will allow visits to the compound once per year during period of our choice.

Soon you will realise this is the way aviation should be, when you start getting that fuzzy feeling of the days you were prepared to 'fly for food'.

If you are not a true aviator, we do not need you to join.

Thank you for your time

Awesome! Sign me up man! Just make sure to have free popcorn and vending machines. Ya know poor pilots live on Diet Coke and ramen noodles

Keepingitreelhk said it perfectly:

"Anyone coming here will realise after a few months something is wrong."

So so true, people commit there lives to this place moving family's half way round the world, they come full of optimism. And after a few months that optimism has been drained out of them and they realise they have made a mistake but it's to late.

The management here both from operations and T&I (HR) are at war with each other. And each department in its own right is mismanaged with individuals just building empires for themselves, unwilling to change the airline for its employees benefit.

Small things could be done at HKE that would not cost money but would help the life of the individual but they literally do not care. The only hope for HKE employees is that pilots leave, pilots cannot be recruited, aircraft get delivered then parked because there are not enough pilots to fly them. Then the management might drop there arrogant stance and pay attention.

Until then.......

Was flying with a guy today who's leaving HK. Just can't make it work now he has a baby. He's now feeling very claustrophobic in his 500sqft apartment, and he can't save for the future.

See The most expensive cities to live in 2017 - CNN.com

The sad thing about the above is that he probably joined CX with the intent on making it a career and dedicating his working life to the cause. Instead, due to greedy, short term focused and incompetent management, he is now leaving. It sickens me to realise that the money THROWN AWAY on fuel hedging would have provided a full housing allowance for every C scale pilot. :(

As a matter of interest. I was under the impression that the airlines in HK pay a housing allowance. Not really relevant to this page, but does CX not pay any ??? And if they don't , surely you know that before you start . I see there is apartments in South Lantau around 100sq meters fro around 30K.

Can I ask if they were an FO or SO?

Comparing the HKE captain package with that of a CX SO is not a fair comparison.

Colleagues, can anybody tell about medical check in HKG? Is it same strict as in mainland China?

FO............

Are there any HKE Captains on here , who are enjoying there live in HK / HKE ? Really would like to hear some positive thoughts !!!

If it was enjoyable you'll never have the time off or money to enjoy it.

Looking at my friends rosters I would have to disagree

To the guys who say they never got any time off please help me out with my calculations.
HKE does not really have any short legs in the 30 min to 1 hour region like for example Air Asia has. So if you fly 6 - 7 block hours a day, one would do 50 -70 hours in 10 days !!! Can you guys explain whats wrong with that !!! That still gives you many days at home, either on reserve I guess or off.

Medical
 

Dmitry. The HK CAD medical is based on the old UK CAA one. It is thorough but not like the mainland Chinese medical.

Turkpilot, we see you have the correct mindset.

We like pilots who are visionaries, who can see more than meets the eye.

You show that even though you are not in Hong Kong nor you're working for HKE, you know the situation better than these sorry whiny losers.

You are exactly what we are looking for.

Contact me today on my mobile, I'm sure it won't be a problem for you to find it.

Not sure what relevance this has to do with obtaining info about this company. I know your obviously joking. Some of us are just trying to decipher through what's true and what's bs

Keepingitreal, has posted a very accurate account of the situation. The only inaccuracy I think is the food budget, for a family of 4 it's closer to 30k.

The most telling thing is that things are so bad at HKE that Hainan has had to impose a restriction of 6 months resigned from HKE before you can apply to HKA because so many crew have requested transfer.

I seem to repeat myself. But once again, I would like to know form an HKE Captain and not from an FO as I really understand there financial shortcomings, on how they feel about the situation at HKE. Are there any Captains on here ? The ones I have spoken to personally seem to be enjoying live in HK !!!!