As has been pointed out, the management in flight ops are American. And all things stateside are dictated by seniority. So as a new joiner to this wonderful company you will have a 3 year 24k bond hanging over your head and have to sit at the bottom of the seniority ladder enduring crappy rosters. But if you don't like it you can leave and pay off the bond ;)

My PBS roster was very average to say the least, certainly not good enough to stop me looking around.

Hi guys;

First of all I´d like to thank you all for all the information written, it has been very useful for me. Last month I´ve passed my FZ final interview and now I have a DOJ for the beginning of next year.

Now I´m looking for an adequate place to live in Dubai. I´m concerned about the apartment prices, I´ve been checking dubizzle and I´ve seen it´s difficult to find a european standard apartment for less than 2000€/month.

Taking into account that I´ll have to go to the airport maybe 15-18? days per month, I´d prefer to live near the airport than in Marina (for instance). Any recommendation? I´ll go with my wife and we have no kids.

All responses appreciated.

Look into Mirdiff. It's 15 mins from the airport (no SALIK toll). Prices are much cheaper than elsewhere. Lots of airline/airport folks live there.

Well I've been here over three years and have endured ****ty rosters for most of it.

5 days on, 2 days off...... the 5 days being mixed days and nights. Single days off, finishing on nights and starting on early flights two days later. 12 night flights in a month, alternating duties, rest periods between 18-30 hours..... the list goes on.

I've had to wait a long time to be able to 'bid' for something reasonable with regards to rosters and it may make the difference between staying here or leaving. Those guys low down on the seniority aren't getting anything worse than most of us have endured for a few years now. Welcome to Flydubai folks.

Just one more point to consider;people on this forum have been openly venting their frustrations over rostering here at FZ for a few years. Go back through this thread and all the info is there for anyone to read. If you have been aware of this issue and have still made the decision to join FZ then there really can be no complaints. The rosters at FZ have been bad for ages and PBS hasn't made it any worse, just improved it for a few.

Thanks NG! :ok:

Place your bets!
 

Set your PBS woes aside boys and girls! With 10 days left to go to the opening of the Dubai airshow, surely it must be time to place your bets on what the future of FZ will look like on the other side of it.

With Emirates rumoured to be ordering 100 odd of the new 777's, whatever FZ will get up to is unlikely to be small. 737max's? 320 NEO's? That's been the story for well over a year now. Or will they tackle the competition and stretch their sandy legs a bit further with some widebodys?

What do y'all reckon? Place your bets now! (Sadly there won't be any prizes for the most accurate guess. All the prize money has gone on topping up the housing allowance...)

Ok, I like a good bet.
-50 A320NEO + 20 options
-21 A321NEO + 10 options

No widebody I'm afraid.

I bet it's an order for Dash 8s. Why else would they recruit so many T/P pilots from Europe's largest regional (loss making) airline? Probably get the flying trash cans for a song too. :E

Ok, my predictions then:

I think the range of the new NEOs or MAX will both be pretty similar and should give them the legs to reach into Europe, China, s.e. Asia & more of Africa, so I (sadly) think that there'll be no widebody's too.

I think the 320/321 combo would give them lots of flexibility with routes and loads and would be a great move.

But I also think the cost of bringing in a 2nd fleet and crewing it too would be high and detract from the streamlined simple business, and what with senior management coming from the Good Ol' USofA...

40 737 MAX 8's + 20 options is my guess. Possibly some 9's too.

All neo in 3 years..

All NEO plus 10 A330s transferred from EK for leisure routes like Male and Mauritius.

Lets just say that they get a different airframe; what would the transition/recruitment be like for that airframe? Would they allow guys to bid over or just recruit for the new airframe? Just a hypothetical.

10B787+10options

Either a bunch of 737-800 & -900s Maxs, 50 plus 50 options, tied in with the EK 777 order (it's being paid for from the same purse of course).

Or, a bunch of 320/321s, re-jigging the EK A350 deal with a few more 380s for EK, as I suspect those 350s won't turn up. Either way a strong bargaining position for a good deal on aircraft.

I've just read that FD opened their cadet programme for Emirati nationals only.

As eluded to above, for MEIR holders with MCC who match the age, nationality and flying hours limits, this might be worth a punt:

Cadet Program - Emirati Nationals-Latest Pilot Jobs-Latest Pilot Jobs

Can anybody discuss more in detail the average schedules. I have heard you can expect about 9 days off per month. How many other days like standby reserve or other duty do you average per month? How many actual trips do you average per month and how many hours do you average per day? How many days do you fly on average more than 2 sectors per day? Just trying to get a feel for the lifestyle.

WY,

You need to come back in a few months and ask that question again. The company just introduced PBS bidding with the November schedules. It "appears" that the days off have gone up from 8 or 9 to about 11 or 12. Standbys have increased from 1 or 2, to 3 or 4. Most rosters are being built around 70-80 hours if you have no vacation. Again, this is just an average. Some people are not happy with the first round of PBS and are raising holy hell over it failing to realize this was just the first month. As for trips per month it could be as few as 9 if doing long flights or as many as 18 if you are flying to Doha everyday! Flights per day vary from 1 to 4. Usually the 4 leg days are local flights around the GCC area, but can have long duty hours reaching 12 hours but only block 4 hours flight pay. Hope that helps.

Hi guys,

thanks for all the info once again. I've passed all selection with CTC + FZ interview and waiting for reply from FZ HR department.

How long does it average take between passing your last tests and getting info from HR department about a start date?

Anyone have any news about FZ contacting your references?

Thanks in advance.

To all wannabes I would suggest to take the time and read the thread from the beginning and stop asking questions on every aspect of the selection process.
All answers are there, just do your homework!
The new aircraft order would also consist of ATR 42 so that the vast majority of the new recruits would be heavily experienced, thus substantially contributing to the overall pilot experience that this airline desperately needs for all those challenging destinations. :E