Singapore Cargo Schedules
 

Any Singapore Cargo pilots out there willing to give details of monthly schedules, hours per month and take home pay. Either Capt. or F/O. I will soon be layed off from AA and am contemplating Sing Cargo. I did a search here but none of the posts seem to be from guys already flying the line there. I also went to their website and read the package, but would like to hear from someone already there.
Thanks.

I think that most of their flights are still flown by mainline pilots who are much better paid than the guys on the cargo contract. I have seen the deal and I cannot believe anyone can live under those conditions in Singapore. Its damn expensive there.

Fly3

You are correct. The SQ Cargo deal is terrible for anyone from UK or Euroland yet despite this O'Neill No6 is joining quite soon. I hope he knows what he is letting himself in for!!

You will find yourself flying with a local SIA F/O who will be paid higher than you as a cargo commander, and will fly First class when he is positioned to a point in the network, while you will sit with bend knees in a very full economy seat. If that is what you want, and you are able to live on 12000 Sin dollar a month all included go right ahead and join the cargo division. Don't forget though that you have to pay international schooling fees, housing fees and shopping fees, which will put one hell of a dent in your budget.

John Barnes

You are so right. I am amazed that anyone from the First World is remotely considering joining SQ Cargo.They will be third class pilots positioning around the world in cattle class surrounded by screaming kids and as you say with their knees around their chins which is OK for an occasional flight for fee paying pax but when you are already cooped up in a flight deck for 900 hours pa ++ then having to spend a heck of a long time positioning which SQ Cargo do a lot of that is going to be really painful.

And to think you are paying a bank guarantee and a huge Bond to get a B744 on your licence which is no longer a meal ticket for such a low salary. I am amazed totally!!

I can really hardly be bothered to post as I’m so utterly exhausted by the convoluted life of anxiety, depression, uncertainty, management evasion, salami slicing of the “contract” and constant bashing by the Singapore government that flying for Singapore Airlines involves. However, I’ll have maybe one more go, just so the fresh crop of ingénues, gushing and tripping over themselves to join Singapore Cargo or Mainline (or even more unbelievably, Tiger!) cannot claim that “nobody told us!”

Please, all you guys (remember, no gals except in Silk Air), wise up, do a Pprune search and check-out the multitude of past threads and posts on the subject of employment with SIA. Also remember that the world market is turning up and that you really do not need to impose a five year future of bonded servitude on either yourselves or your families.

Take note of the huge amount of cash which is required to be provided by the individual to get started in Singapore, note well that the present version of the “contract” is still being “adjusted”, to our further detriment of course (notwithstanding the recent outline “heads of agreement” document recently signed between SIA and Alpa-s, which, incidentally, completely disregards the interests of the ex-pat pilots) and hoist onboard what no one else seems to have mentioned and that is that a similar huge sum will need to be available to get out of Singapore once you give notice or retire at age 60 as SIA withholds salary payment to the individual for the last three months after notice or at the start of those three months before 60 (to clear income tax liability which is paid in arrears here in Singapore).

Please do not delude yourselves with the idea that what you read on Pprune is not true but merely the rantings of a disaffected few – everyone in SIA feels the same and all the stuff you will read is accurate!

Finally, if there is anyone in the world who would wish to challenge this latter assertion, I would be interested to see his or her reply to this post and I’d be delighted to refute any charge of inaccuracy as, indeed, I know will many of my colleagues in what is probably the worst mainstream employing company in the industry (if not the world).

Err...guys, I think you forgot to mention 2 other very important aspects of the present cargo schedule for our potential joiners.

Fact 1: Lots of postioning/paxing, sometimes amount to 40 hours a month easily across the network. (Just think of SIN-LAX paxing which has total block time of approx 18 hours)

Fact 2: You are NOT PAID for the positioning unlike the main fleet.. Hence, rostering wont hesitate to deadhead ( pax right after your active duty ) or position you all the way back to anyway that needs you cos it's free to do so and too darn expensive to put you for more than a night of hotel stay.

Now for the international school part, forget it all together. I know for the fact that the management tries their best to hire those without kids or those with no intention of sending their kids to international school. With school fees alone of SGD2000/month/child, and that's just school fees ALONE.. go figure the maths.

Lastly, to help you save some loose change, you might wanna consider the local housing of HDB apartments rental..

All the best, feel really sad for those who still have no other option but to join with these sort of terms and conditions.

if you don't mind the drive across the causeway, living in JB is an option!

dear all,

1) If you're really screwed jobless, then apply and suffer for
a few SIN- dollars.

2) IF you enjoy being screwed, then apply.

3) If you're dying for a 744 rating and don't mind an
occasional screw.

4) Only apply Cargo here if, you've got nowhere else to go

Hav fun in SQ-cargo
:cool:

Thanks to all who have replied. I will soon be layed off and am just looking for options. As in my origional post, I am curious as to the scedules for the Sing Cargo pilots. Days off per month, routes, legnth of stay at outport, all long haul or some regional, able to bid for trips, able to swap trips with other pilots, etc.

AADriver

Send me a PM and I'll respond with the info you're requesting.

AAdriver,

Likewise if you wish to PM me you can...think it may be worth it too judging from the above to be honest

For all you guys out there who came from an environment where you were able to bid for flights, swap flights and have some sort of control over your personal life you have to wake up to the reality in SIA. You will not be able to swap flights, you will not be able to bid for flights , and it is almost impossible to request flights. last but not least: All the better flights with the better destinations will be picked up by training or "connected" local pilots. Your personal life is completely controlled by Crew Scheduling who can do whatever they want and change and swap and cancel your flights at any moment without any sort of pre-warning. You might get upset and become a little vocal with the scheduler, well the next surprise will hit you and that is that all tellephone calls are recorded and you find yourself in the office explaining why you were "so unprofessional". But if you are out of a job and the bills are coming in you might not have much of an option, and that is where all airlines these days , in the west or in the east, are getting their bargening tools from. It doesn't matter if it is SIA or Ryann Air or Emirates, if you knock on their door for a job they know where you're comming from and will offer the minimum they can get away with. Sadly enough we are still our own worst enemies!!!