Royal Brunei Interviews
 

Hello guys,

Has anyone recently attended the Royal Brunei round of interviews at CTC Southampton ?
If so, could you please advise the format of the assessment and the sim assessment. Thank you

Perhaps you’ve already done your due diligence on Brunei, but I strongly advice you to read up on the development there over the past 5-6 years before committing to anything. I’m talking about both the country as such and the company.

Good luck.

Brunei used to be a great place to live and work. I spent 4 years there and loved it. But now------ Sharia law etc. makes it quite restrictive for expats and their families. Very safe place but I would think it would not be overly easy living there now. The locals are wonderful people but that's only a small part of living there. Give this some very deep thought!

Avoid :mad:

Agree Avoid...... new T&C for new joiners less than the current T & C

:mad: creek
New canoes
No money for paddles.

Remember what you will see during interview is the élite'/the very best of this Airline. Draw your own conclusions. Good luck.

Are they still recruiting?
Does anybody know if they are offering commuting contracts?
I cannot find any information on contract T & Cs, can anybody help?

No commuting contracts . Avoid at all cost :mad:

Just avoid...I've heard two tails..... First one is a classic...... ask a guy for an interview having checked his details only to find out they can't employ him because he's on the wrong licence... and then not reimburse his travel expenses as promised..... Then offer local terms to a pilot that used to work for them......just avoid

When talking about Royal Brunei it is important to realise there are in reality 2 distinct airlines flying under the name Royal Brunei.

There is the B787 Airline which is vastly over-crewed and is given unlimited resources. The crews do very little actual productive work and are paid a lot more in terms of flying allowances than the Airbus Royal Brunei. There is no intention to make this (B787) airline profitable and no pressure for meaningful cost cutting,

There is the A320 airline which is vastly under-crewed, the target of cost-cutting and starved of resources with the intention of it becoming profitable, The pilots in the A320 airline work to the absolute limit of FTLs and earn considerably less than those in the B787 airline.

At some point Royal Brunei will give up on trying to recruit Airbus pilots but will have to recruit NTR DEC for the B787 Longhaul airline. This is the job to go for. They will do what it takes to keep this operation over-crewed and ‘happy’.

All the comments seen so far on Pprune refer to the “ A320 Airline”.

This is the CEOs view of the current situation and his view of localisation v expat.

thescoop.co/2017/10/10/rb-will-have-enough-pilots

CEO: RB will have enough pilots for fleet expansionIn the face of global pilot shortage, RB is confident it will be able to meet operational requirements.
Is there a fine line between confidence and delusion/arrogance?
Royal Brunei (RB) will have enough pilots to operate its growing fleet of aircraft, its CEO said during the latest signing of two new cadet pilots on Monday.
It does not have enough crews for the A329s it already has.
Despite its small population, the country can still produce individuals who are able to meet the stringent requirements to undergo commercial pilot training, Karam Chand said in an interview with The Scoop. Next year, RB is expecting to welcome an additional six Airbus A320 and one Boeing 787.
“Of course, there is a global shortage of pilots and engineers… We have made plans before deciding to add more aircrafts and will be able to have enough manpower.”
Enough manpower for what? Enough manpower to fly 2/3rds of the proposed fleet. Or maybe he is saying the present crew numbers are sufficient for expansion? RB is already desperately short of Airbus crews so some catch up is required before even thinking about crewing new aircraft. What plan? Ignore the laws of supply and demand and pray for more pilots? Certainly offering possibly the worst terms and conditions in S E Asia won’t cut it.
A study by Boeing released in August this year estimates that the airline industry will need around 637,000 new pilots over the next 20 years.
This high demand makes them more mobile to move between airlines, the RB CEO noted. However, he assured that RB has not seen a high rate of turnover among its pilots.
20% (and counting) of your Airbus Captains leaving is not high? Maybe 100% is high(ish)?
“The major airlines are able to offer more competitive pay and RB has limited resources… But our schedule (is better and) allows our pilots to be able to spend more time with their family,” Chand explained.
All the Airbus pilots are totally f@cked off with the schedule and some of their families refuse to live in Brunei. The general consensus is the schedule is far worse than even the LCCs.
He added that some of RB-trained pilots have gone on to work for major airlines.
“This reflects the high standards of RB training and development for our pilots to be accepted by bigger airlines in the Middle East and Europe.”
Yes RB has so many pilots and so much money we are happy to train pilots for other airlines. After all we don’t need them, we are happy to help crew other airlines. Many of the pilots who have left have not gone to bigger airlines in the Middle East and Europe, they have gone just to get shot of RB. And dude the training (constant checking) is way behind modern industry standards.
Currently, all of RB’s first officers are locals and Chand is certain that with time, more will rise to the rank of captain. The flag carrier’s 138 pilot workforce comprise 73 per cent locals, with fifty per cent of RB captains being locals.
All of RB’s first officers are locals, said Chand, adding that with time, more will rise to the rank of captain. “As part of our recruitment process, we have very high standards. For this signing, we have identified two out of 73 shortlisted,” he said.
So no jobs or future for expat first officers? And no future for expat Captains either so not a career move. And 2 new cadet first officers every year will cope with retirements, promotions, resignations and fleet expansion?
Once cadet pilots finish their training, they will become first officers and after 12 years, depending on performance, may qualify to rank as captain. The national carrier, the CEO said, is doing “significantly better” than where it was before in terms of localisation of pilots.
So no future for any expats here. Clearly a policy of localisation by attrition.
“Generally speaking, we should be extremely proud. For such a small nation we have quality people in Brunei.”
Really? Any chance these “quality people” can come and manage Royal Brunei?
On Monday, RB signed on two new cadets in hopes of bolstering its pilot manpower — Muhammad Zulhilmi Ali, 27, and Amir Yaziid Hakim Mohd Adam, 20.
The cadet pilot programme, dubbed CTC Wings, will commence this month in New Zealand where the cadets will train for almost two years.
“I expect the training course to be hard and challenging, but this has always been my dream to become a pilot,” Amir Yaziid said.

All very positive. Sounds like a great company to work for. When can I start?

Sounds like a great company to work for... :mad:

Let them sit with very low interest for the A320 positions. Next year when the new A320s arrive, they’ll have very little crews to even fly them. Now you would think that would mean improving the current package, that would only happen if guys would stop selling themselves in this industry for cheap...another impossibility! :ugh:

Brunei's direct flights to Beijing postponed to early next year: official

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, Dec. 6 (Xinhua) -- Direct flights connecting Bandar Seri Begawan and Beijing will be postponed to early next year due to "complexity of international routes," a senior official of Royal Brunei Airlines (RB) said on Wednesday.
"We are still working on it. But because of the unexpected complexity of international routes, our direct flights to Beijing will be postponed to early next year," RB CEO Karam Chand told Xinhua at Brunei International Airport.
"Hopefully, we will make it happen before the Chinese new year," he added.

You would hope a business that only has International routes might have a slight grip on the "complexity of international routes." Complex. Who'd've thunk it. Wow.

Or maybe it's the complexity of getting 4 pilots in one place for long enough to go to PEK and back?

Anyway, always good to live in hope but actually making it happen may be a better option. Hopefully I will be able to land the plane tomorrow, hopefully. Especially if your fat and hopeful (less?) ass is on-board.

'777-200LR 'guys would stop selling themselves in this industry for cheap'. You will be pleased to know so far no one (Captain) has sold themselves cheap. And it looks like a few more leaving next year.

Hi all,
Any idea on the new expat package for F/O and Capt's?

Updates?
 

I am new here... was invited to the interview next month. Any tips on what to prepare?

ps: no airline can be worse than mine

This airline is in total meltdown. 9 out of the lat 10 applicants did not turn up for their interviews. No need to prepare, if you have a pulse the job is yours.

When maybe a good oportunity for someone to get into a jet and build minimums hours for something better.

If proof that what was once a profession, but now a trade, there it is. Another ryanair .

Easy for you to say that... Do not judge if you don't know my story. You have no idea what is like being from a country with literally no airline having to fight your way into an airplane.