Nauru Oz Base
 

Saw an advertisement recently for crews to fly for said carrier based in Oz.

Anyone here know what their t and c, rosters, morale etc like?

Thanks

where was the advert.

If it's an advert for Air Nauru, it must be quite old. Hasn't been known as such for many years - since 2006.

Nauru Air FO positions
 

Advertised on Seek 4 days ago

Don't worry about T's and C's or rosters or morale, take the job if you need it, use it as a stepping stone only for something better at the first opportunity. Thats exactly what they will do with you.

Prickly, I'm not sure you know what you’re talking about.

I have several close friends there (which, incidentally, is Nauru Airlines and not Air Nauru nor Nauru Air as some posters think) and they speak highly of the place.

What do you mean by that, they sack people on a whim???

That couldn’t be further from the truth, they offer a career path and there have been about 6 - 8 reasonably recent F/O upgrades to command in lieu of any direct intake of Captains, something that is/was available to them. Certainly some crew were let go (redundant) as the pandemic bit, which airlines didn’t, but rarely has someone been terminated for other than sound reasons – were you one of them Prickly? My friends tell me less than a handful in that category over the last decade – that’s at odds with “exactly what they will do with you”. There are those, of course, who have left for other opportunities – some recent departures for US carriers or mainline, for example.

They definitely work hard and earn their money but the rewards are there and loyalty brings dividends if you stick around. Some who joined as F/O’s over 10 years ago are still there – must say something about the outfit.

Are they still FO’s?

No. All have their commands there now.

Mr witwiw,

My comments regarding the thread starter's enquiry were meant to be generic and applied to any airline anywhere.

But if your close friends are happy at Air Nauru or whatever it's now called, they need to thank the pilot group of 1988 for making it so.

Good on you, Prickly, for clarifying your comment. It was far from obvious that it was generic and I'd doubt many read it as other than a specific response to a specific question.

Yes, the current airline is in fine shape, but not as a result of the misfits and mercenaries who joined in '88 following a major industrial upheaval which saw the sacking of just about the entire pilot group employed there at the time.

The current good status of the airline can be traced back to the newer group of pilots there in '96 who, with the encouragement of the then Nauruan government and the establishment of the Nauru Air Corporation, undertook getting an Australian AOC. The rag-tag group who arrived in '88 had long gone by then.

Oh, how interesting. Maybe you could tell us a bit about that "major industrial upheaval" in 1988, how it started and why.

This help, Deja Vu? From an article by a former Air Nauru pilot.

And this from Wikipedia.

Can’t vouch for anything, though, way too young for all that..

​​​​​​​prickly I think you underestimate me. I've worked for 3 different airlines and have close to 8000 hrs. Just wanting to gain more info on the operation as it seems little is known, at least from my end.

Well, there’s some twisted logic in kb's1st quote: the airline is sending them broke so you sack the pilots, bring in more and then fly around without charging fares – helps go even more broke, I guess, and faster.

The pilots who didn’t get the sack had ingratiated themselves to the right people – like the one who allegedly flew a 737 single pilot to get the aeroplane back to base when another crew member was sick. That “hero” nonetheless had to wait some 10 years after he retired to get his super from them.

FWIW the father of a school friend of mine was one of the pilots who got shafted. My friend’s father had his Nauruan bank account frozen and lost his savings. He also had personal possessions confiscated (motor bike, room contents etc) - it was by all accounts a vindictive move by the president back then, nothing more.

Do a search.

A few years ago it seemed pretty vocal here on Prune that there was some “apprehension”.

But since then there’s been some posts that seem to be celebrating the “ousting” of a previous management group.

Maybe that indicates good things these days?

[QUOTE]the “ousting” of a previous management group.[QUOTE]

I think you mean “previous MISmanagement group”.

Apologies for thread drift - has TJ found another operation to whom he provides his services or has retirement finally beckoned??

Cheers

I doubt many people really care being glad to see the end of the three stooges.

They might find it hard to get a gig if other operators do their due diligence and understand the circumstances in which that group left Nauru Airlines.

Has anyone done interviews that would be kind enough to share their experiences?

Also keen to hear from anyone currently working for them.

The pilots who didn’t get the sack had ingratiated themselves to the right people. There are two sides to that story. They simply refused to go on strike at the time as they considered the strike was unecessary. The vindictiveness against them had to be seen to be believed. I was one of the non-strikers and never regretted it. That said I left for a better job a few months later. Agreed that the pilots from Indian Airlines were shockers. I advised the then President that at the time Indian Airlines had a very poor flight safety record and it was far better to negotiate a return to work for the original pilots who had been sacked. Earlier the AFAP had told the striking pilots it would refuse to support them if they returned to work. So the strikers were caught between a rock and a hard place. They finally bowed to the AFAP demands to stay on strike Eventually, several Australian pilots who lost their jobs when the 1989 strike took place in Australia, were recruited into Air Nauru and things gradually improved for the better.