Royal Brunei-Another One Bites The Dust
Join Date: Jan 2002
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A great pity to see the demise of another excellent carrier in the Far East. I worked for them for four and a half years, and the training, aircraft, routes and the pilots were all top notch. If the management is going to trim costs by slashing the expat working conditions, then think of the money they will save by not having to pay pilots at all: then soon there will be no flights either saving them even more money!! They are all well qualified and can leave at the drop of a hat, and have done so in the past: the year I left so did about 60 others. They could always try filling the seats!!

Join Date: Oct 1999
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Col. Klink, I was recently looking for cheap seats for relatives. Royal Brunei were doing UK to Oz for £400 or so - and that clearly didn't fill the seats. It could be for a couple of other reasons. J. Public seems to want to go through Changi on Singapore Airlines - free booze and seat back TV, plus more choice on routes. I think it is all down to size, sadly Royal Brunei were too little.

Join Date: Jan 2002
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Anti Skid On: you may be right. The "product" is excellent but hardly anybody knows about them and almost no-one wants to route their flight to Australia or Bali via Bandar Seri Begawan.Especially when you can stop off in Singapore for a days shopping or whatever. The airline is essentially a flag waving excercise but it seems cheap deals and convenient connections are not enough to turn it to a profitable enterprise overnight.But, as I said earlier, slashing conditions and sacking pilots isn't the place to start, either!!!

DIRECTOR
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This Airline has always been a flag waving exercise and never made money and because of the criminaL waste of money by the socalled royal family of Brunei is now showing itself up for what it is. No airline that does not serve alcohol makes money. They just rely on very cheap flights to Oz stopping off god knows how many times on a slow B767 for the backpacker brigade,. .. . 411A will be happy if the pilots are made to pay for the wasteful behaviour of the Brunei mafia.

Join Date: Jan 2002
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Gypsy, you know not what you are talking about. The airline was set up to waive the flag a bit, BUT is mainly a vehicle to keep the Bruneians employed.Flag waving is hardly a new reason to run an airline, look at how many airlines there are in Europe and how few make money.The pilots who went there did an honest days work and got paid for it, but we never would have been needed if the locals could have trained up to become pilots. Few have, those that did are generally very good.Why would 411A be happy if the pilots were made to pay for the excesses of the Brunei Royal family? The guys that worked there are decent pilots who needed a job and were given one, and most of us were considered lucky to get one! I think you talk a load of cr@p!!!

Join Date: Jun 2001
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The airline is still operating. Albeit RBA are having a major restructuring and rescue program, whether for the good or the bad, we will all have to wait and see. Someone pushed the panic button in the higher echelons of RBA management.. .FYI, not only have some expat pilots been removed, there has been at 40 expat (local) cabin crew removed as well. Cadet Pilots on loan are being recalled. So it's not just an anti expat exercise as some would have you believe. This is a major business saving program which unfortunately got off to a very poor start. Give it time for the waves to settle and RBA to actually start talking to their employees before we write them off.

Cunning Artificer
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Always pleased to serve a customer Khan. Website is at:. .. .<a href="http://www.bruneiair.com." target="_blank">http://www.bruneiair.com.</a>. .. .Contrary to rumours, Royal Brunei is very much alive and kicking. A few in-house difficulties are being sorted out thats all. . .. .Oops! edited to correct url.... .. .**********************************. .Through difficulties to the cinema. . . . <small>[ 27 March 2002, 02:22: Message edited by: Blacksheep ]</small>

Join Date: Jan 1999
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DFO has retired at age 60. His son read about his "dismissal" on a local news web site. So far he is still been paid but not flying. No one in senior management seems to have the bottle to either confirm or deny the story. What a sad state of affairs.. .. .I am told that morale has hit an all time low and that goodwill has been totally withdrawn; no FDP discretion etc etc.. .. .Hang in there Jason.. . . . <small>[ 27 March 2002, 09:09: Message edited by: THINALBERT ]</small>

Join Date: Feb 2002
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Just a quickie,not really this thread but well........I hear the ever so bent Banana has been fixed at LHR by the "dream team" at BA and is now back in service.Three and a half months of hard work,good to see we still have the skills in this company(but for how much longer)?Congratulations boys another fine job. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Roll Eyes]" src="rolleyes.gif" />

Join Date: Feb 2002
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you would of course sue them at there London Office as a British registered company.. .I beleive others have been successful in doing this. Perhaps a lawyer amoungst us could clarify

DIRECTOR
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Colonel Klink, You have missed the point entirely!!. .. .411A loves it when pilots salaries etc etc are reduced, you obviously do not read PPrune much or you would know that.. .. .I never made any comments about the pilots ar RBA so what are you on about??. . Iam well aware that they have a good bunch of pilots. Their safety record is exemplary which is more than you can say about SIA and others in that region.. .. . What I am saying is that it is a pity that pilots conditions are being reduced because of the excesses of the Royal family there.. . As for saying it was set up primarily to employ locals I cannot agree with that. It was primarily a flag waving exercise when money was no object in the heady days of high oil prices.. .. . How many locals are employed there doing real jobs??

Join Date: Jul 2000
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What a shame. We have just had a superb night out in Brunei with some fellow (non RBA) expats and almost managed to put our cares and worries away for the evening.. .. .How sad that we have to wake up tomorrow morning to the reality of looking for another job when we really would like to stay here. However we have our pride and cannot accept being treated like this.. .. .Good luck to those that will remain.
