Fly East or West? The big conundrum....
 

Hi folks, (hope this is the right place to post on the forum)

A friend of ours has a dilemma. He has applied for two jobs, and is stuck between the devil and the deep blue sea (it seems). I wanted any of you fellas to shed some light for me.

He has a choice: Ryanair or Korean Air. He is far more eager to join Korean (particularly as it's 28000E for the RYR course!). He sees Korean as more "prestigious". :confused:

But, I have a series of questions.

1) Are there UK bases with Korean? If not, how and where would a British Korean Air pilot fly from?

2) Which would you rather choose, if you were someone living in the exotic West Midlands? The RYR base at BHX, or Korean Air?

3) Can anyone shed some light on the pay? Can anyone give me a little comparison?

I'm just plain nosy I guess...
Cheers boys and gals

1234

What aircraft type would he fly for Korean Air? Obviously on a narrow-body fleet like the 737 he would be flying primarily regional flights. On larger aircraft (A330, 777) he might be doing more long-haul flying with the associated jet lag, etc. but he would visit some interesting places. I am not sure about the UK base but clearly that would entail a widebody aircraft like the 777 or 744. Living in Korea would be a culture shock and it could be expensive.

With Ryanair you get point-to-point flying and no layovers. But, you get to sleep in your own bed every night and you get some predictable time off with schedules. You fly one aircraft type but you fly mulitple sectors per day. Some people prefer that and want to focus on European flying.

What does your friend want in the long-term? It might be ok to start at Korean Air (if he has the option) to try that type of flying and then return to the UK and Ryanair with more flight experience if long-haul flying doesn't appeal. Widebody experience might also make him more appealing to BA or Virgin if that is of interest in the long run. That's my 0.02.

He is very experienced, with command. He's recently left TCX. I presume he wants to fly the 777.

Is there any further detail from anyone? Are there Korean bases in UK? What about pay - any good?

Korean commuting contracts are available out of LHR, they work out (from memory) as 17 on 11 off, as for pay, depends if you can hide it from Mr Darling or not:ok:

One of the recruitment agencies (Cambridge something) had a website setup with a FAQ on KAL that I read through a while ago. Do a search and it should show up. I have seen KAL contracts being offered by all the main agencies though - PARC, Rishworth etc.

For what its worth the money was pretty poxy (for an F/O on the 330) but then beggers can't be choosers. I was looking at it as an a*se covering exercise incase my present employer decides to let us go.