Qatar Airways Roadshow
 

I am just a little bit off topic here, but during the same days I went to the Qatar Roadshow, and surprise: yes lots of GF drivers were there. Every 'cast' was represented from the young A320 FO to the A340 Training Captain with 20+ years in GF, amazing.

The best I think was to here from M. Naff on the same evening that they had a 'list' of bad pilots who are 'always' sick to be fired (Mr Naff I have an advise for you: try to understand why these guys are always 'sick' and then you might solve one of our big problem in Gulf Air : Rostering / Crew Planning (...)). Great sir! By spilling so much uncertainty on our careers and families you will end up with an airline with no pilot to fly your aircrafts. Maybe could you also go and fly them yourself !(You will see reading these 20 pages of MDDs take quite a time!)

What a bad PR from our new management. Even if I appreciate M. Naff effort to communicate with us. But how do you want people to buy your crap? You ask us basically to understand that we are ahead of difficult times (again!) with downsizing (the only airline in the gulf to do that!) and no salary increase (We have been listening to the same crap for the last years)... When in the same day we have been offered at least 2 jobs with more than double the money in a better environment...

THIS IS A NO BRAINER !

And guess what when the meeting was finished the other night I went straight to the GF sim for assessment with Qatar, and I couldnt believe it! Strange times ! And I had no intention to leave GF but with all this crap now it is a whole different story.

You want to increase the 1970 old school allowance and the housing allowance: this is NOT ENOUGH, you need to bring our BASIC salary up to standard, or a massive exodus will happen. We need hard money in our pockets or we will get it from somebody else (call him sheik ahmed or almaktoum).

See you, in Doha or Abu Dhabi or even Dubai. When is this Emirates Pilot Roadshow by the way ? I heard Cabin Crew had one recently in the now famous MoevenPick Hotel (who is a Swiss hotel company by the way...) but when are pilots interviews scheduled in bahrain?

BD

Good for you Boeingdriver, hope the sim check went well. I have grave doubts about what the new salary offer will be. In the past we were expected to get really excited about 3% or 50BD on the housing. That won't work anymore since the EY offer is at least 1000 to 1500BD more. As you say a NO BRAINER!! A parachute under every seat :D

Interesting development....
 

AXED Gulf Air flight crew will be offered positions with rival Abu Dhabi-based airline Etihad, the GDN has learned.

A well-placed source at the UAE carrier yesterday said the airline was prepared to take on all captains, first officers and cabin crew who lose their jobs as part of Gulf Air's streamlining efforts - brought on by financial losses running at $1 million (BD378,000) per day.

The source said Etihad's management had given the green light for the recruitment of all crew deemed surplus to Gulf Air requirements.

"Management have said: 'Just take them'," said the source.

"They are qualified, they are good and we do not have to spend money training them."

They added that qualified staff were at a premium in the aviation industry, with many airlines forced to scour increasingly remote parts of the globe for cabin crew.

The sudden availability of staff familiar with the region and capable of doing the job was described as a rare and welcome opportunity for competing firms.

However, the source revealed Etihad would not take any more than those axed by their competitor in a bid to keep relations between the two firms cordial.

"The instructions are not to take more than Gulf Air gets rid of - they do not want to hurt Gulf Air," they said.

Any offer of employment by Etihad would likely come as a relief to those who will leave Gulf Air under the airline's plan to cut its 6,000 workforce by 25 per cent.

Announcing a strategic plan titled Making Gulf Air Well earlier this month, new chief executive Andre Dose said the streamlining of staff and loss-making long-haul routes was the unfortunate cost of restructuring the airline.

The airline's deputy chairman Mahmood Al Kooheji said those most likely to lose their jobs were expatriate cabin crew.

If former Gulf Air employees do make the decision to join Etihad, it will mean a reunion with former Gulf Air chief executive James Hogan, who now occupies the same position for the UAE airline.