Saudi’s dirty game against its pilots
 

Saudia is forcing all expat captains to request a six months unpaid leave as of April 15, 2020 otherwise face termination. This course of action is contrary to the labour law of the kingdom. They did this by telephone calls and refused to put it in writing. They wanted it to appear as if the captains are requesting the leave. Very dirty game by an airlines that is celebrating 75 years of service. Shame on the Saudia management!

From a Country not famed for ever playing a "clean" game, hardly surprising.

Disgusting
 

I worked there for a few years and I left, Saudia is one of the most messy airlines in the world, nice airplanes with plenty of MEL every flight, even on new ones, no planning whatsoever for the future. They were waiting for an excuse to actuate the most ridiculous plan ever, SAUDIZATION ! It will never work, they don’t have what it takes to run an airline without expat because they lack professionalism and discipline. Local pilots claim sick continuously and get the best flights.
the pay is not even that great comparing to 5 years ago. The colleagues that are being forced to do this should consult a lawyer all together and pretend that the company follows tha Saudi law without those dirty tricks.

What did you expect from the Saudi’s?

Surprise Surprise!

Do the pilots have any means to go home? The country has already banned all flight in and out. This could be another nightmare to those pilots.

All pilots stuck in the curfew bound cities until further notice. No flights means staying at home. And now no salary means stay at home without family and without work or money.
With Ramadan looming ahead these so called curfews are only going to get worse.
Pilots losing an average of 10-20% of their basic salary every single month due to some miscalculation done half a dozen years ago. All one sided. No explanations ever given !
and now from 15th April, you can either lose your job or take unpaid leave for 6 months. This had been illegalised by the King less than a week ago. Blatant disregard for the Kings decree.

This is all BS. There is a legal option to leave the company. Go ahead. Go legal. Take another job. It so easy these days and coming years... Plenty opportunities around :E.
They still give you a chance. Obviously Saudia can't afford to pay salaries when airplanes are not moving and oil price is next to nothing. They are even terminating their own pilots older than 58 years, and not taking back their retirees as promised. It's their country. What did you expect?

Which planet are you living in Romasik 🙄
Surely you haven’t been in this part of the world lately

Looks like someone here is aiming for a manager position in the most halal office in the world. Disgusting....

There are about 60-70 Saudi Captains who just (JAN-FEB) retired and expected to be hired as contractors, making double or triple their income. One is the brother of the actual Minister of Transportation Ex-Saudia DG. Disgusting.

The locals play with company’s money, doing useless type ratings on new airplanes that only made a few flights (B747-8) now parked and unused.
The first officers are spoiled and absolutely not ready to be captains... Scary times ahead

This is where Emirates would actually stand off as a considerate and caring operator

The FAA will do nothing at all, due to wider political context.....
.

SAUDIZATION
 

Its the right thing to SAUDIZATION the whole company. 1200 saudi citizens pilots are Unemployed . Thank you SAUDIA AND THANK YOU CAPTAINN FOR SERVING IN OUR COMPANY. I read comments saying that Saudia can not be success without expat . Im gonna say you’re wrong on that and we will handle it without you . If you dont like Saudization then go to ur country and find new job there and one can open his mouth against u

For an airline that aims to be top 5
 

It is not the pilots to go legal because so far is the company that is not doing it and will also be liable criminally by the one that perpetrated and actuated the illegal behaviour.

Pilots have a contract so it is not up to them to leave the company nor to ask for unpaid leave.

Surely if they decide to brake the contract they will have to pay ALL their dues and it is their responsibility to repatriate the crews as per contract. (They will have to put up flights for that purpuse because othervise foreign embassies will get involved and they will lose even more credibilty in the eyes of the world against what that they are trying to build to attract foreigners)

Nobody expected this from a company or a country like Saudi Arabia but I believe that they will find a more sensible and viable solution than this one.

Qatar airways is retaining its crew with a reduction in salary like Emirates and local airlines in Saudi.

Thinking that an employee can remain in Saudi without salary and food away from their family is only something that one would expect in third world countries like Africa.

i hope they will not put up with this. And surely the future behavior will set an example for the future if they will seek foreigners to work for them again.

They promised the moon to everybody before employment but they did not keep any of those promises.

First officers were promised command courses that never materialised, they moved people in different bases without paying any relocation allowance as per contract. The employed crews waited more than nine months to have a dignified accomodation as per contract......

I am confident that this is the opportunity to prove the rest of the world wrong about Saudi I hope for them and for the crews that they will jump on this opportunity.

Surely it would be very different for all the employee, if they are repatriated and agree on a certain time of lower wage during this crisis I am sure that there would be a totaly different commotion about this issue and everybody would accept it.

Saudis don't always fly very well, do they? Some do, older experienced men. Young ones tend to have an arrogance default, especially against 'Westerners'.

It is very bad the way you talk to those guys that sustained the company during ramadan every year and doing the bad flights, obviously this offer of 6 months without pay, by the sound of your words, has not been proposed to You.

Also it looks like blackmail you can go and look for another job really 🙄......I want to remind you a famous say : “on the corpse of the lions the dogs feast....but the lions will always be lions and dogs will always remain dogs”

The labour law has changed due to the companies NOT able to provide FULL salary without making any money themselves. MOST companies are the world are doing the same. We should help the company that have put food on our tables for years.

Saudi pilots are more than 95% of the company force and they're fully qualified and professional. Why would a company leave their own citizens unemployed for other expat. I understand if they don't have skilled citizens but this is not the case.

While I agree with you on the fact that a company should hire his nationals first, I have to disagree on the professional word. I’ve met very professional guys there but that accounts for maybe 20% of the workforce, in Saudi Arabia and in Saudia professional doesn’t exist unfortunately, there’s no discipline at all, almost everyone is smoking in the flight deck during flight, even during refueling, local pilots claim sick continuously if they don’t like the roster or during important holidays, during recurrent training, the one with the swimming pool involved, nobody is actually entering the pool, it’s all a joke.
Have you ever asked yourself WHY the company is hiring expat captains instead of upgrading their first officers ? Think about it and give me an answer.
If the mentality doesn’t change, if the corruption doesn’t stop, Saudia will never be in the TOP 5 Companies and if they want to attract a different variety of passengers, they should start serving alcoholic beverages on board, alcohol is sold secretly everywhere in SA anyways so what difference does it make ?

I think they gave you a hope to return back in 6 months instead of stay at home for a long time!

It is the time to enjoy your family
 

Dear expat colleague,
Unfortunate, is vary sad, that after many years of obtaining the best benefit of one of the best contact on the world even better than saudi pilot contact, you start complaining and whispering in such difficult time where world's largest companies have been suffering.
it is the time to enjoy your family and serve your homeland if you meet and find a jobs even with four quarter the income of saudi airline.

I forget how many years I have spent in Saudi, but when I arrived they were implementing Saudization, its a wonderful goal and makes the uttermost sense, however there are limitations, the company is expanding and there are only so many training slots per year for first officers and captains.

If there are still 1200 SAUDI citizens pilots waiting for a job, then one must ask who convinced them to go spend $100,000 on training without having a job offer, Saudia never had 1200 expatriate pilots, so there was never 1200 slots to fill.

Well said Polax. So very well spoken, I couldn’t have put it better myself !
Stable and logical thoughts and intel like this is rare on this forum.
Kudos.
I fully concur !
👌

Hypocrites pilots
 

I think they are group of hypocrites ,It is difficult to find all highly qualified pilots but Some pilots believe that they will remain in the company for life and if they got Terminated they Discredit her reputationI think most of the pilot hare taking about Saudia airlines they got terminated or did not find job opportunities

A message for all pilots SAUDIA Airlines has the highest salaries and the sweetest life
Stop False talk about Saudi airlines
The bad reputation caused by an irresponsible and irregular and undisciplined person
For non-happy pilots
Leave the company to us and find what works for you

Based on my past experience in the Middle East and elsewhere I'm not so sure I'd fall for blue sky promises like that from any airline. Did you get it in writing?

Guys are dreaming ! Go ahead and take them to court , hope you have deep deep pockets. Most of the "cases" of pilots sueing (sp) are urban myths.

help doesn’t mean stay away from home fr free...reduction is one thing being treatened termination in exchange of six month unpaid is another !! ..and I am sure sobebody will go to jail for that !! Over there they are serious about things like that...you that is talking, have you got any reduction from your salary due to the law change?? Any how remember what goes around comes around...your arrogance is your biggest problem...obviously your country is not as rich as it portays !! Only lies ... beware of any job offer from that country. ...Top 5 .in their dreams !!


I bet they are also cheating trump with their promises !

I think you should avoid as an exuse motivate your crucked behind the scenes mascherading it as BS...it is you guys not BS and it looks like somebody is going to make you all go to
jail!!

I couldn’t agree more !!

And after this experience I hope that they will never be in need of expats again because I am sure no one will believe their promises because even the written ones are not kept.

Aviation is a very small world...very sad really the way that they carried out this ...not even a call to them from their manager of gm ...only a first officer that called all of them !!

obviously even the management were ashamed !

If you don’t like the environment or the rules then go back to your country that left you unemployed.
Saudi First
After this Coronavirus, there will be lots of unemployed pilots and the average salary will go down, try to get a new job then! Hint: maybe drive a taxi hahahaha

M
 

Alright folks, I get it and I can understand the frustration here but come on, I can see where you criticize management or the hole f*** company and I dont care. But you start cursing our country and our spring chicken first officers who are in their beginning into a long career!! Who the hell are you to say the company will fall apart without ur presence. I know it is not the best airline but for God sake they put food on ur table for so many years and this is how you act when the whole world is facing a crisis!!! I can argue all points in this thread, however it will be useless since I realize how much anger and bitterness roaming inside you captains but this is shame if it clouds your judgment on pals!

That's great! Thanks for the good news. It's about time. Saudia is for Saudis
I'm glad that we are finally realizing that if you help an ungrateful they always would come back and bite you in the ass.
Super proud of our national carrier Saudia Airlines. Will always use it in the future

good that you left so you can talk nonsense about Saudi pilots like an idiot behind the screen and for your info Saudization will continue and soon all the Saudia pilots will be Saudi’s . Keep boiling idiot .😂

this is normal as all Airlines are affected by this crisis but you don’t see the pilots posting or talking bull**** about their airlines . Simple choice take it or leave it .

I worked in Riyadh and Jeddah for several years back in the 80s and Saudization was a major topic back then. Although the country made huge advances in many different fields, that was one dream that was a dream too far.

But I would not single out Saudia as being the only company around the world trying to lay off staff. Its happening all over the place. Which is why I am sitting at home right now and have the time to read and reply to these threads.

Just to digress.... google old pictures of Saudia Tristars and other aircraft of that era. You will find two different fonts for the name Saudia. Apparently it was changed because some bright spark claimed that the older version had a cross in it between the S and the A.

To All expatriates Pilot
 

As an unemployed saudi pilot ,I would like to say to all none Saudi pilots whom complaining a lot and talking bad about my country and Saudia Airlines, Saudia gave you a chance to earn flying hours and many type rating such as 777 and 787 and 330 as well while most Saudi National never had the chance to do so,
I wouldn’t be so mean and say you wouldn’t get a large salary like you did in saudia and never dream of being Captain in your countries, just be thankful and now you all have what you came for ( flight time ) (not for loving Saudia neither saudies )you’re not lost go back to your countries with what saudia honored ,you will find jobs , Now it’s time for saudi pilots to fly in their country,
(one last thing I WOULD to say thank you FOR your SERVICE)

not your business if Saudia can or cannot survive without expatriates it’s our business

Expats double standards
 

Don’t talk about professionalism when It’s funny coming from expats who steal apples and bananas from the galley after every flight. Some of the expats are so cheap they beg for a ride from the Saudi first officers because they don’t want to pay 40 riyals to Uber despite they heavy paycheck.
if you go to expats’ residence in Jeddah or Riyadh you see their fridges are filled with SV catering from water bottles to Tabasco. Even the tissue box they take it from the airplane.
You expats don’t know that we know that you steal even time by playing with the clock and taxi and cruise on very low speed! This is Haram my friends

That's the problem of saudis like many other people around : lack of knowledge how things work down in the civilization...