Plenty of Pakistan license holders looking for work right now!

And that's the second part to the equation, not sufficiently voiced, ehm. That EU/NA excellent pilot professionals are a sub-set to excellent pilot professionals global group. Not the other way around.

Many of my recent ME/Asian colleagues went sick at short notice in anticipation of difficult approaches/landings at EU/NA destinations. Snow, ice, winds, even low vis were instrumental in their considered decisions to opt out. That "option" they frequently exercised until recently may not be so readily-accepted in the future.Replacements will be thin on the ground. And in the air. Excellent piloting skills come from experience and aviation culture. The stats prove that EU/NA operators are safest. Caveat emptor.

Jet II

and in the last 2 -3 years it became easier than ever
I had to bring a decade of experience
today if you have your licenses and where lucky to fly a couple hours on a turboprop in Africa you are fine of to join the league of big fat toy pilots
And that’s very tempting and hard to say no especially in countries where everything is destroyed by corruption, highly unsafe etc. reality is that there are a lot of countries where the shi......t of dxb is by far better than home - ask South Africans with the wrong color

Well..., that depends what Saffers you ask. I know a couple of guys including myself who packed up shop because of the absolute sh*tshow DXB has become and moved back home to fly for an LCC. Because guess what, quality of life is actually better if you work smartly with your $'s.
Problem is, there are a lot of ego involved and such a move back to a 3rd world country to fly a lowly 738 for an LCC just won't cut it - read shiny jet syndrome. So they would rather be semi miserable and keep the status going. I never really enjoyed flying with my fellow countrymen because of this exact reason. Remember EK is highly regarded in SA for some unknown reason so back home people see you as some kind of uber pilot if you wear an EK uniform.

Happily downsized from A345 to CL604. Once you've flown the heavy stuff you realise it's JAFFA - Just Another Frickin' Airplane.
You eventually realise it's not the size of the plane that matters - it's how rarely you start the engines that counts!

Spamcam

Very true and I agree
I mean it explains why their won’t be an issue to find pilots even thou we - who forced or not to leave know what kind of place it is - and yes most pilots would not believe what we could tell them because it cannot happen to them, until it does

There will always be those who will worship the wide-bodies as the only aeroplanes fit for a "real" pilot. There will always be those who claim that "aircraft type X is the one and only true airplane and everything else is rubbish". There will always be those who will think that only the lowly, unambitious and mediocre pilots out there wouldn't want to work for the likes of EK.

But guess what? A lot of that thinking vanishes with experience, both professional and life experience. People get to realise that the type and registration aren't that important as all transport category aircraft have like 80% commonality in terms of how they are flown. People find out that how you feel about yourself is way more important than what others think of you. People realise that being happy with your base, roster and pay and maintaining a healthy work-life balance is a long way more important than flying the heaviest piece of metal out there. Hence all those who ditch the A380 for a narrow-body or a business jet with no intention of ever going back. But, to reach this stage in their thinking, most need to "live the dream" first and find out first-hand what it's like. And this will ensure a never-ending flow of applicants to EK.

I would like to try corporate flying for the next stage of my career. I have done everything else

How I see corporate flying doing during all this airline cut backs ?

Surprisingly good at some places, actually. Many wealthy people choose private flights over airline business or first class these days in order not to stroll packed terminals or share a plane with hundreds of potentially contagious strangers. The thing is that most good corporate jobs are assigned by referral only, i.e. you need to have been in the game for a while and have the right connections.

The demand will come back.... May not be immediately, but once enough people have the vaccine in their veins the economy will start to rebound and the double decker bogan buses will start to fill again.

even with fledgling demand, the ME3 will do what they do best - dump endless amounts of capacity onto the global market in a prolonged route war with the big players in EU/NA. Point to point is cool - but price point always wins. The bulk of travellers won’t have any qualms about paying bargain basement prices, enabled by the soon to be savagely reduced T’s & C’s of EK staff.....as long as the IFE has thousands of movies.

the government has always had to bankroll its airlines for prolonged periods of time to avoid the shame of one of them going under.....don’t think the next ten years will be any different.

PilotLZ

For a lot of people it’s for living the dream
speaking for my self it joined EK solely for the chance to fly long range and I don’t care about the airplane - it’s a tool
you are right - there will always one who believes that living the dream and live style is worth getting abused and being treated like garbage Is worth sitting on the big fat shiny planes
in any normal airline long range flying would be an improvement to your lifestyle - not here

But only for those with real licences.:*

PilotLZ


This is Spot on!

On the subject of traffic/travel returning to normal, this will of course happen first in countries where the government has at least a tenuous grasp of reality. Ergo, our Ozmates could be waiting some time.

"Australia’s Covid-19 death toll is still less than 250 – on a typical day, more people than that die from other causes by lunchtime"

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/c...-overreaction/

Dropp the Pilot

Murdoch has a strangle-hold on Aussie media, therefore we get a disproportionate amount of this type of cr@p, but our actual response has been largely pretty good- not New Zealand good, but in a different Universe to Trumpistan.

As usual Australia and Aussies live on a different planet to the rest of the world. Finding new inventive ways to be anal and pedantic makes Covid a perfect target for them. Latest crap is the crew in SYD are not even allowed Uber eats deliveries due to hotel staff ‘safety’!


Meanwhile in the rest of the world a measured approach and common sense compromise seems to be taking place. Not USA level gung-ho, but following the science and the numbers closely and easing things. Loads are definitely picking up in some markets, but there’s no doubt they will be missing a big chunk for some time. Especially as a large share of the UK/EU transits were to Aus/NZ.

Dropp the Pilot

But it has been increasing. What do you actually expect them to do? Should they wait until the death toll is 2000 a day or 3000 a day? You have to get on this early to stop the death toll increasing. Basic figures like these show nothing except that maybe they are much more proactive than the US or the UK for example.

Getting back on topic....

There has been a rumor that EK is going to (or perhaps has already) make an additional 550 pilot redundant at the end of August. Does anyone know if there is any merit to this?

Also, what has been the total number of pilots let go so far? Are the redundancies and the 22 hours duty day connected somehow? Are there any other occupations other than surgeons that allow for this or does EK think they're clever somehow? There will come a day where the last sounds heard on the CVR will be snoring.