Skymark
 

Hello

I am interested in applying to Skymark. I have been through the closed thread dealing with this airline but I am wandering what is the latest news on these guys.

Thanks

I'm leaving after 8 years with them.
Your welcome to my slot.
Had enough of the twits.

Skymark..
 

The Good;

If you work on days off, there is money to be made. Selling back a day pays you an extra $1000 a day. If the company needs you badly enough you can sell back 10 days and pocket an extra $10K a month. Be aware that this is not always available. All other months you make $8K + about $1700 in per diem and a housing allowance of appr. $2700.

Paid ticket to your home once a month in economy class. Extra flying can open the door for a business class ticket but it depends on hours flown.

Little to no jetlag while in Japan as most flying is between 0600 and 2300.

Always more than enough fuel for your flight.

If you make it to the line flying it's a good place to acquire B737NG PIC time.


The Bad;

Training. Expect 8-10 months before checked out. Sometimes longer. Training pay is $7K a month + per diem. Housing provided by company. No guarantee to see your family unless you bring them to Japan.

Check rides are a bit like the lottery. Put your name in the hat and maybe you will pass or maybe not. Failure rates are way above average here. If you do fail, depending on how the company feels that day you might get fired or demoted to FO for 1-6 months.

Flying. All domestic flights. Hotels are 2 and 3 star. Layovers in not so exciting locations around Japan.

Company treats you like a child. Constant emails about this and that. Show your license to the briefer because someone once forgot to bring his license for a flight.

Crew meals are bento boxes from 7-11. Varies but mostly cold rice and fish/pork/chicken etc.. Little time to take breaks as almost all turns are 35 min and you are always running behind schedule.

Communication skills among cabin crew is a handful. Some of them barely understand English.

Hopefully someone can chime in and help me understand.
The minimum requirements seem to be a bit of a moving target. Risworth lists total time required as 7500 wasinc and iasco say 5000. Then iasco says you need 1500PIC jet but wasinc say you need close to 1000PIC jet while risworth lists the requiement at 2000PIC Jet. So two list hard numbers and one is vague. What exactly does 'close to 1000' mean. I have about 700 jet pic, is that close enough?
I would love to hear from anyone whom has any insight on this.

Not sure about Rishworth and Iasco, but with Wasinc, its TT 5000+ and Total PIC time 1500+ but i was applying for the 330 job so they asked for 1000 PIC on type (320/330 or 340) So the "1000" PIC asked by the Airline does usually mean 1000+

Thanks for the reply. I have my app in with Wasinc. I have over 3000 PIC with 700+ in a jet and about 3500 total jet time. I'll post up what I hear for those that are interested.

Contract companies differences
 

One thing to be aware of for newbies is that Wasinc does not let you accrue vacation days while in training. That can easily total up to 15-18 vacation days less than what you will have with Rishworth or IASCO.

IASCO has a higher penalty for leaving before completing your contract.

The 3 year clock does not start until training is complete, aka you have passed your JCAB route check.

I was seriously considering it because of the fact that u get 10 days off with a ticket back home every month, BUT... Probably 8 months of ground-school, plus u will be at the hands of the JCAB examiners every time, (according to some, they left half way cos they got sick and depressed every time they were at the mercy of these guys) and several weeks of line training, for what? Probably u make 12k, but i wouldn't do all this for 12k, and with a very high failure rate, it is a very poor move to make unless ur already with a JCAB License.