direct Entry Fo second half of 2016?
 

recently there have been some rumours floating around about direct entry on a base second half of 2016! Any truth to this? will the company give hong kong guys priority on bases first?

Also heard from second officers that a couple of SO are upgrading on the a320 for DRAGONAIR?? sorry Cathay dragon???

A group of my buddies are coming out for interviews in Hong Kong for the jobs. Should they contact the union to talk about if they should accept?

Yeah, except for the fact it bypasses our training ban and assists the company with their evil plans. Bring in an IFALPA edict to assist us I say.

SOs upgrading to JFO on 330 not 320.

ka to get more 330s

Heard from someone who heard from a super reliable source that it will be DEFOs on the 747 (read freighter) on a new local term CoS

Announcement shortly.

Hong Kong report
 

It will be a resurrection of the old Hong Kong report that KA had. I would think with a few early commands thrown in too. Very popular with commuters and wannabes!

Obviously, these positions have to be put out to bid first, before DEFO is even remotely considered. All base slots are bid as passenger slots on passenger pay. If they do not have training resources, why are they hiring pilots?

This forum is rubbish.

AHK = ASL mk #2

Seems like the company keeps wanting to revisit all of its past mistakes.

.... and it will not cost them anything to hire these TC's, because we are already 20% underpaid; not to mention the fact that there are Captains that can barely afford to live in the SAR..... god help the SO's.

One thing is for sure, Doctors in HK will be making a killing now that we will have to visit them more often. I can't wait until the company mishandles my medical records, and information is not kept confidential. I will be able to retire at 42, instead of 55!

They have created their own ticking time bomb, and herculean efforts will not solve their dilemma - especially with the way they are unilaterally making life more difficult for most current employees.

It's a minor mystery why it's taken the company this long to go down the freighter FO path.

I just hope everyone will fight to have these poor guy's conditions improved in the same vein as we're fighting for HKPA recipients.

The World is short of qualified pilots. Why would anyone come here? Do people NOT read this forum? They could not attract anymore people other than CRJ drivers last time around and they honestly had, and still do, have issues with that group. If they are able to get some applicants, wait to you see what they unearth. The quality of a candidate will have dropped from the last DEFO recruitment drive.

More are leaving and I expect a big exodus this spring/summer. The USAOA is on it's own now and will have to defend itself. Judging by how the onshoring process is going, it will be difficult for them. Expect more freighter terms and conditions. Perhaps some of you caught the reference in the GMAs last newsletter. This is in addition to raising the EFP credit hours for that coveted JFK base.

The fact is that terms and conditions drive things. If enough come, like these kids that keep signing up, then t's&c's will be driven down and housing will eventually go away.

I think we need another hiring ban but that's just my opinion.

A slight tweak of the wording the last 3 747 pax A/C leaving soon and "passenger pay" is going to disappear faster than a fart in a fan factory.

Throw a sweetener in for current CX/KA/LD pilots to be check and trainers (commuter roster / bases anyone??)

ASL mk2 / D scale as said above.

There have been rumours for a while within AHK that some CX freighters will be transferred to them to fly some or all our regional freight services.
While crew currently suffering those freight patterns would cheer, I don't think shrinking our airline or losing planes and routes to other carriers is anything to be happy about. The company would no doubt spin it to blame us too.

There is no longer a division of freight or passenger bases. They are all just bases. If you bid for LAX, then you could be put on either the B777 or B747. Pay is the same, and the company has the flexibility it needs.

I know that was a popular misconception during that hiring boom, but it was quite inaccurate. The fact is that all demographics of pilots during that time experienced difficulty adapting to the pedantic culture of Cathay. The real difference during the '05-'08 hiring versus other time periods of direct entry was that many of them were Americans. The CRJ training difficulty was anecdotal.

I know I experienced bias based on my nationality on several occassions. Ironically, I appreciated that people had the courage to say it to my face.

There are always pilots from countries where their salaries and cost of living are much lower than VHHH's. Why wouldn't they accept a job at CX and AHK?

What is a direct entry first officer anyway?? sorry but they way many see it is that unless you are a 0 hrs cadet (hence the introduction of second officers at some airlines), a professional pilot with thousands of hrs should join as a first officer, end of. Direct entry captain I can understand the term direct, but the rest I just can' t get my head around..

I think the problem was that the CRJ was made is Canada.