PPRuNe Forums - Kam Air Expat Contract: Full Info

Another carrier which is very rarely mentioned on here, I’m going to give you another insight into an expat contract, this time with Kam Air. There’s probably a lot of opinions on this one, but please keep the political ones away from this.
I’ll start from the beginning:

Background:
It’s that time again, the cash is running dry from your previous gigs, and so it’s time to head to the deepest darkest parts of the pilot job hunting sites to find some lucrative, short time work. The wife crosses her fingers that you’ll pick up some gig with Avion Express, or some other colourful eastern bloc carrier close to home, when, cha-ching, you see something open for Airbus skippers in the Middle East.

Application:
This is a new one, for you or any of your contracting mates, you debate whether going on a jolly to a warzone is worth it, but you’ve played enough call of duty to look after yourself, so you convince yourself it won’t hurt to throw in an application, which is completed in a matter of minutes, so you crack open a cold one, and wait for a reply.
Exactly 7 minutes later, beer still 3/4s full, you receive a reply, inviting you to an online interview on Microsoft Teams “at your earliest convenience”. Who ever said contracting was hard, eh?
The next day, you don your best pyjama top and turn your camera on, prepared for what could be an e-tea and biscuits from the comfort of your own home. A lady from HR at the contracting agency is the only person there, and she asks a few questions about availability, then for copies of various documents, before telling you that you will hear from them with more information before the end of the day.
Thus, the end of the day rolls around, and no email arrives, so you can’t help but think you managed to !!!!! the bed at an interview for Kam Air.
The next morning, you wake up to an email from the contracting agency, inviting you for a face to face assessment and a SIM assessment, with a 12 hour deadline to accept. Of course, like a kid at christmas, you accept the email, and a few hours later, you receive details of your trip.
You excitedly tell the wife you’ve been successful and have an assessment with Kam Air of Afghanistan, which of course is exactly what she wanted to hear.

Assessment and Sim:
4 weeks later, you pack your stuff up, ready for your all important assessment. A shiny new EasyJet A320neo whisks you off to Antalya. No bags and certainly no speedy boarding as you had to pay for this yourself, but the middle seat you’re allocated isn’t too uncomfortable for the couple of hours it takes to get down there. After landing, you’re left to find your way to your 3* hotel way down in the South of the city, just across a very busy motorway from IFTC Antalya where you’ll conduct your sim the next day. There’s not much to do in this part of the city, but the contractor has paid for the room so you can’t complain, and you tuck into a pot noodle for dinner and get ready for the big day tomorrow.
The big day rolls around, and you’re greeted by the IFTC staff who show you to the room where the Kam Air assessments take place. No familiar faces on this one, but around 15 expats from Europe, South Africa and the US sit in the small classroom like school children. An awkward silence blankets the room as one by one, a suited man with a moustache who looks about as stereotypically habibi as one could imagine, comes and grabs you for a quick chat. The chat, which is more of an unofficial interview, grills you again about availability, and some Airbus related technical questions. Eventually, you’re released back into the holding cell, and the same man then presents a Windows 98 PowerPoint presentation about the contract, accommodation, salary, expectations etc, the usual stuff.
This is followed by a sim, in a 320, which is observed by a local examiner with a red biro who scribbles a few things on a clipboard during a simple raw data ILS and then tells you to bugger off. You later find out the red scribble means something along the lines of “he’ll do”, and congratulations! You have passed! The next day, you’re back at IFTC, this time with a representative of the contractor. The suited man is now joined by a bond girl looking Latvian lady, who hands you a pack (yes, paper joining packs!) and gets you to sign a contract. A few formalities later and you’re shipped off back to AYT, and told to enjoy your 3 weeks off before training begins. The window seat on your not so shiny 320ceo back home is made a bit sweeter knowing you’re about to cash in on some famous Middle Eastern contracting cash. The Tom Cruise in American Made type of contracting, not the John Krasinski in 13 hours type of contracting, something you have to clear up quite regularly. You hope, anyway.

Contract:
I’ll let you in on the bread and butter of the contract.
-1 year with the option of extension by you.
-Accommodation w/bills included provided + travel to and from accommodation/airport.
-$61USD per block hour, with a guarantee of 50 paid hours per month, approx $92USD for every hour above 50. This is on top of a basic salary of $5,500USD per month.
-$100 for every 6 hours spent inside the country of Afghanistan (5 hours 59 mins, no danger pay…)
- UAE based contract.
-20on/10off pattern with paid travel to your nearest international airport at both ends.
-No cost or bond for training
-No running away before 10 months. 2 weeks notice period after that, so you can leave whenever you fancy really.
-$6000 lump sum bonus on completion of 6 months.

It should be noted that the contractor is obviously the point of contact for all contractual issues, and are avail 24/7. If you call Kam Air “HR” there’s a good chance they won’t even answer, and if they do, won’t know who you are and/or don’t speak a whole lot of English.

Training:
You wave goodbye to the wife and kids, you’ll be seeing them fairly regularly, unlike your previous contracts, so it’s not so painful this time around. A semi comfortable economy seat on an Iberia A350 takes you down to toward CAE Madrid for your 7 week intensive training course. Training runs Monday/Friday, so you can return home for the weekends if you wish. Your room at the Barajas Crowne Plaza can also accommodate the wife, should she feel like abandoning the kids and joining for a night of passionate tapas eating. Breakfast and Dinner are included with your room, so a cup-a-soup from the CAE vending machines are enough for lunch and you manage to scrape by without spending much money (apart from hundreds of quid trying to get home every weekend).
Only 6 of you from your assessment are here for the training, maybe the other 9 couldn’t handle the pressure of such an intense assessment? Maybe they saw the news and thought, “you know what, I’ll give Afghanistan a miss”. Fair enough, I suppose.
Training is conducted by other expats who are contracting for Kam Air, a Ukrainian, and a kiwi. The training is thorough, and professional, despite the wide variety of accents. Honestly, probably not as juicy as you are hoping for, the training was of higher standard than expected, 2 of the 6 were released for not meeting the standard.
At the end of training, there’s no presentation, just a handshake and a “see you out there” from the trainers. No uniform, no wings, you’ll get that out there. The day following completion of training, you’re paid a full basic salary, approx $5500. This was promised, and was actually paid bang on midnight. Following training you’re given a week off, before heading out to work for your induction and start of your 20 days on.

Relocating:
After the smooth assessment and training, you have high hopes for a swift and easy journey over to the desert.
Come on, contracting wouldn’t be what it was if there were disappointments interspersed along the way like alloy bending pot holes in the road.
One 23kg checked bag is what you’re given for your Emirates flight out to Dubai. Your ticket has been booked from some agency you’ve never heard of before, and a Google search doesn’t even show any results. Unable to check in online, the app and website don’t seem to recognise your booking reference. You contact the agency and they tell you that you should check in as normal, at a desk. Upon arriving at the desk, you’re told that you’re not booked on this flight, or the next one, or any flights that day. Wonderful. The dnata workers understandably have zero sympathy for your situation, and simply move you out of the way for the rest of the queue to move forward. A call to the contractor, and they assure you they’ll get “right on it”. So you take up a spot in a coffee shop, and await what you hope will be a swift resolution to your situation. Pretty soon though, day turns to night, and you suddenly feel like you’re not going to get on tonights flight which is now boarding. Just as you get ready to head off home, the agency calls, and they’ve rebooked you tomorrow. Not a fancy Emirates first class suite like you hoped, but on Pegasus from Stansted via SAW. Well, beggars can’t be choosers I suppose. Pegasus aren’t bad, by the way. Eventually, nearly 36 hours later than planned, you’re starting your descent into Dubai. You’re not Albanian or a scaffolder from Essex so feel pretty out place as you try and navigate the arrivals hall. A smiling rep from the agency meets you in arrival, and eventually she locates your driver, who’s waiting at the wrong terminal, and eventually he drops you at your accommodation around 4 hours after touch down. This is no Emirates chauffeur service, this is just some blokes cousins friends sisters brother-in-laws barber who’s been bunged a few quid to pick up some foreigners in his Chery QQ.

Accommodation:
“Premium single living apartment in the bustling heart of Downtown Dubai. En-Suite, double bed, with all bills included. Super fast internet and access to a 24 hour concierge.”
The apartment in question is actually above a halal butchers in Naif, arguably the biggest !!!!!hole in Dubai. It’s loud, smelly, uncomfortable, walls are made of paper, and at night Naif can become a pretty dodgy place. There were 11 expats living in this building. Now, being used to the contracting lifestyle, you don’t need a Hilton, just a bed and a charger, but being in Dubai, you were somewhat optimistic with your expectations. You’re given a swift reality check almost immediately, when a young man stood by the permanently open street level door to the apartment complex tries to sell you a watch and doesn’t leave you alone until your driver tries to kick him in the head.

The double bed exists, consisting of two single beds zip tied together at the legs. One could consider the halal butchers or the kids selling drugs and watches downstairs a 24 hour concierge, so you’ll give them the benefit of the doubt on this one. The super fast internet though, that was actually fast, surprisingly.
The bedroom is en-suite, with a small shower, sink with mirror, and a toilet. A half used bog roll hangs lifelessly from the holder, and you start to think you might have really taken yourself a bit far with this one.

The kitchen is pretty small, but well stocked with all utilities one could ask for. There is a large fridge, many of your fellow pilots have marked their own food, but there are other items which can be shared. Not sure if Borscht or Buckwheat are your thing, but there are some laughing cow cheese triangles in there for those with a more vanilla palette.
There’s a dishwasher and also an all important washing machine.

There’s no TV or “social area” in the house, other than the kitchen, so most time is spent in your room.
After your brief tour of the Nightmare on Naif Street house, the agency lady leaves and gives you details of your induction and classroom lessons which start tomorrow. Welcome to the Desert, Captain.

How Kam Air Works:
So Kam Air have one of their A343’s permanently based in Dubai. The aircraft rotate in and out regularly, but there’s always an aircraft overnighted in DXB. Following the fall of Kabul, many expats working for Kam Air left, understandably. To mitigate this, Kam Air based one of their A340’s permanently in the UAE, allowing a safer contract for any willing expats. There are both Captains and FOs on this contract, around 50 of you in total, the numbers being made up with Skippers and FOs from Kabul base who hop in and out every few days on positioning flights.
Cabin crew are entirely Kabul based Afghans, all males, in fact, unfortunately it won’t surprise you that every employee at Kam Air is a male. The sad reality of Afghan life now. Cabin Crew, like KBL based FOs, will operate out every few days and will then remain in DXB for a duty block, before returning to KBL.
The Operations Control Centre is located in Kabul, your first point of call, whether it’s Ops, Crewing, Maintrol or Flight Planning. All contactable 24/7, and there is also a Kabul based duty pilot on call 24 hours a day, on paper anyway.

Your Fellow Expats:
11 of you life in this Premium Apartment block, with a few more apartments spread across Naif housing the remaining guys. Mostly South Americans, a handful of South Africans, a few Indonesians, 2 Brits, 1 Dane, 2 Turks, a couple of Ukrainians, Slovaks, Bulgarians, Russians, you get the picture, the list goes on. A real mixed bag, but all here having passed the thorough training, and all professionals. Everybody is very friendly, and there’s quite a nice, quick build of camaraderie as you all appreciate that you’re all in this !!!!! together. An unholy amount of experience between all of you, especially in dodgy environments, which makes you feel a bit more comfortable.

Rosters:
Rosters are released, officially, on the 10th of every month.. The 10th of every month is broadly interpreted by the planners in Kabul, and realistically the roster can be expected anytime between the 10th and 28th of each month.
Once released, the roster is fairly stable, with very minimal, if any, changes to it once published. Kam Air use one of the more common rostering systems, and you can access it via a mobile app. It’s not exactly an exciting day, as you work 20 days on and fly the same routes every month. There is no bidding system, but there is a triptrade function. The triptrade function though, like many things you’ll find, does not work. There is also a “preference” between Early and Late duties. This system works on paper, however, is fundamentally flawed, considering the only departure from DXB for Kam Air is 0300, reporting 0145……you guess this could be interpreted unofficially as both a late and an early? You’ll give them the BOTD again on that one. There is no fixed pattern, it’s a random roster for your 20 days on, ultra long duty days broken up with rest days and the occasional day off.
Kam Air does have planned nightstops for expats, in addition to planned daystops.
Duty days are long, but it varies quite drastically, so I’ll give you an example from one of my more recent rosters below:
Monday D1:
- PICKUP 0100, REPORT 0145. DEPART DXB 0300, ARRIVE KBL 0615.
- DAYSTOP KBL
- DEPART KBL 1725. ARRIVE DXB 2010.
Tuesday D2:
- REST
Wednesday D3:
- DEPART DXB 0300, ARRIVE KBL 0615
- DEPART KBL 0930, ARRIVE HEA 1100
- DEPART HEA 1230, ARRIVE KBL 1345
- POSITION KBL 1725, ARRIVE DXB 2010.
Thursday D4:
- REST
Friday D5:
- POSITION DXB KBL 0300-0615
- DEPART KBL 0930, ARRIVE IKA 1130
- DEPART IKA 1230, ARRIVE KBL 1620
- DEPART KBL 1725, ARRIVE DXB 2010.
SATURDAY D6:
OFF
SUNDAY D7:
OFF
MONDAY D8:
- POSITION DXB KBL 0300-0615
- DAYSTOP KBL
- DEPART KBL 1800, ARRIVE MZR 1900
- DEPART MZR 2015, ARRIVE IST 0015
TUESDAY D9:
- LAYOVER IST
WEDNESDAY D10:
- DEPART IST 0130, ARRIVE KBL 0800
- DAYSTOP KBL
- POSITION KBL 1725, ARRIVE DXB 2010.
THURSDAY D11:
- POSITION DXB ISB ON SERENE AIR, DXB 1325, ISB 1715
- NIGHTSTOP ISB
FRIDAY D12:
- DEPART ISB 1630, ARRIVE KBL 1700
- DEPART KBL 2000, ARRIVE IST 0030
SATURDAY D13:
- LAYOVER IST
SUNDAY D14:
- DEPART IST 0130, ARRIVE MZR 0730
- DEPART MZR 0830, ARRIVE KBL 0930
- POSITION KBL-DXB 1725-2010
MONDAY D15:
- OFF
TUESDAY D16:
- OFF
WEDNESDAY D17:
- DEPART DXB 0300, ARRIVE KBL 0615.
- DAYSTOP KBL
- DEPART KBL 1725. ARRIVE DXB 2010.
THURSDAY D18:
- REST
FRIDAY D19:
- POSITION DXB KBL 0300-0615
- DEPART KBL 0930, ARRIVE HEA 1100
- DEPART HEA 1145, ARRIVE KBL 1300
- DEPART KBL 1400, ARRIVE ISB 1530
- NIGHTSTOP ISB
SATURDAY D20:
- POSITION ISB DXB ON SERENE AIR, ISB 0900, DXB 1225
- FLY HOME SATURDAY EVENING

You might be doing the calculations, which FDP table is this in accordance with? Eventually, you’ll run out of fingers, and come to the conclusion that Kam Air must have its own. Discretion isn’t a thing, often you’ll look at your roster app and see strange numbers that don’t add up, for example “ALLOWABLE FDP 14:29/ACTUAL 14:29” followed by an electronic discretion report which you don’t really understand. Whether you complete it or not, it doesn’t really matter, the FRM team double up as building security, so it likely isn’t read and instead goes to some long archived email inbox that nobody has access to anymore.

It’s worth noting that after November 2023, some KBL daystops were avoided by positioning back to DXB with FlyDubai. This was inconsistent, but happened occasionally.
A daystop at Kam Air is considered to be anything over 9 hours. You’ll be given a hotel, transport and meals. Anything 8 hours 59 minutes and under, and you’ll get nothing. Split Duties don’t exist, so you kind of just hang about, which is less than ideal really, isn’t it.

Induction:
Your first day in the sandpit will involve being picked up the same Chery QQ as yesterday, and driven the short distance across to Port Saeed, the neighbouring district. You’re driven to a block of rented offices, and head over to the reception and tell them you’re looking for Kam Air. They direct you to the second floor, where a very small meeting room clearly marked as Kam Air doubles up as the base office. A smiling young Indian lady who seems to be in charge of the office but not an employee of Kam Air greets you, and starts to kit you out in uniform. The uniform is about as generic as they come, isn’t exactly high quality, but fits, and that’ll do. You’re given a very fancy Samsung Galaxy tablet, very unexpected, and you receive a quick lesson on how to use it. You’re also given your company ID, login details to your to your roster, your company emails, a list of “helpful contacts”, as well as some sort of Dubai discount card, kind of thing, you weren’t really paying much attention as the strong chemical smell in the room is starting to make you feel like you’re on the brownies in Amsterdam.

Further Training:
Despite passing everything out in Madrid, you and your 5 new colleagues must complete 2 additional days of training out in Dubai, consisting of Aviation Security, Dangerous Goods and CRM. The irony isn’t lost on you that these 3 subjects are being taught by an Afghan airline.
The training takes place in a conference room of an airport hotel, and is taught by a Kabul based cabin crew instructor. The instructor is ex-Qatar Airways, and as well as speaking perfect English, is a very professional and engaging instructor. Still feels like a waste of time though, regardless, as nothing new is taught, and the finishing exam in backwards English isn’t rocket science.

Life outside of flying:
Unlike most contracts you’ve taken up, this one allowed you to have a shred of a life outside of flying. Being in Dubai, even if you were in Naif, allowed you to move around and visit the city with relative ease. You have mates from other airlines regularly stopping by on layovers, and have others working out here for other carriers. Days off or rest days can be spent in your room, or gallivanting around the city, listening to your pal from EK tell you over brunch how hard he’s got it, or with some other expats out in the city exploring. Any block with 2 or more consecutive days off or rest days meant you could even fly the wife and kids out and stay in the city in a hotel. To be honest, as contracts go, the life outside of flying on this one really isn’t that bad.
Naif is rough though, and you should keep your wits about you when moving around, especially in the evening. Ideally, if going out on the lash in the city, have a group of you, or at the very least make sure you’ve got at least one Eastern European with you and make sure he’s suitably fuelled with Staropramen before departing the safety of the apartment.
Lastly, for christ sakes, don’t bring the wife and kids back to the apartment. Not only is it unpleasant for them, but blokes waking up at half past midnight don’t need screaming kids, peppa pig oinking, and you and her boinking until the late hours.
Your 10 days off are honoured every time, you will generally fly home at the end of day 20, and return the night before day 1. If you’re delayed into your first day off, you’ll usually get a day back at the end so you’ll still get your full 10. Flights home are booked by the contractor and are seemingly booked at random on skyscanner, you might find yourself in a nice EK or BA Premium Economy seat on one occasion, and connecting via Bucharest with Wizz on another.

Line Training:
Not much to report. 6 monitored sectors with an expat LTC. Gives you a good taster of what you’re in for flying wise. You can’t fail the Line Training unless you manage to let everything roll into monumental clusterf*ck.

Flying life:
Nearly every duty starts with the 0300 flight out of DXB. A Nissan Patrol will be downstairs waiting for you at 0100 every morning, sometimes it will arrive a few minutes late if it picks up another pilot from a different accommodation block first. As it’s the first flight, it’s generally on time. Overnight MX is usually conducted in DXB but if it runs over, it’s very rarely delayed in advance, so you won’t know this has happened until you actually reach the aircraft on stand.
An 0145 report at the not so glamorous Terminal 2 at DXB, and after passing through crew security, you’ll head to the gate to meet the cabin crew who will have arrived from a nearby hotel. 9 times out of 10, the aircraft is parked a fair drive away, out in the sticks on the C20s, C30s or C40s, which gives you ample time to brief the crew on the bus. More often than not, you’ll be with an expat FO, with 8 KBL based cabin crew. The cabin crew are generally very friendly, and there’s a good atmosphere onboard most days. CRM is, surprisingly, very good here, and cabin crew are not afraid to come and talk to you directly if they have any questions or concerns, or even just for a chat. I would always recommend chatting to them, they are very open and honest about life in Afghanistan and it’s always so fascinating to get an insight into the real picture on the ground out there.
You’ll dispatch under MEL every day, but the meat and bones are well maintained, somehow Kam Air can keep all of their APUs operating but European carriers I've flown with will go the entire Summer season hopping about the Greek Islands with it INOP. The expat FOs are trustworthy and reliable, so you can complete your walk around safe in the knowledge that the FO is doing his job up top, and vice versa. The KBL based FOs are hit and miss, but generally are very good. If you’re really unlucky, you’ll fly with a KBL based Captain in the right hand seat, which is well known around the expat community to become a CRM nightmare, and toys will be thrown out of the pram if they don’t believe you are doing what they think you should be doing. On one of the few occasions I was unlucky enough for this to happen, the Gapten in the right seat quite literally said “I give up” and then outright refused to do anything else for the remainder of the sector. This stemmed from having the ND briefly switched into NAV and not ARC…..
DXB/KBL/DXB flights are empty, never achieving more than double figures, belly full of cargo usually made up most of the weight, and cash. Very often you would have Dangerous Goods in the hold which would never come with a NOTOC, and even if you weren’t happy, you were expected to depart with them regardless. Don’t need to fill you in on what type of DG were carried, you can use your imagination, but the type of stuff you would be throwing the book at in other parts of the world. A call to ops would usually come back with “no no, is okay sir” and the call would drop.
Flights in and out of DXB have a good on time performance record, largely due to the fact there are around 40 pax and the cargo is being loaded as soon as you arrive at the aircraft.
Get used to tankering, you’ll “fill her up” in DXB and Ops/Flight Planning will convince everybody that’ll see the aircraft through it’s next couple of sectors, fuelling is available in Kabul but only for “critical times”. Airports like Herat and Mazar-I-Sharif do not have fuelling facilities. Fuelling is not allowed in Istanbul or Kandahar, but if you’re in a pinch you can drop into Antalya, which, for some reason, allows fuelling. Other outstations like Islamabad, or later Delhi, Jeddah etc, do allow fuelling, but it’s not encouraged by Ops, who would rather you tanker from KBL or ideally DXB/AUH.
Crew meals are available onboard. Meals catered overnight in DXB are actually pretty good, meals catered in KBL however, should be avoided at all costs. Nearly blew my head off with the spice when it went in and nearly blew the lav door off when it fell out. Soft drinks and tea/coffee are also available onboard.
Water/Waste can be completed at all stations though, you’ll be pleased to know, and there are MX contracts in DXB, IST, DEL and of course KBL. Flights to all other stations will have an engineer on the GENDEC. You’ll be unsurprised to know smoking is also fairly common onboard, cabin crew are pretty vigilant in regards to pax smoking and putting a stop to it, only for them to then go to the back galley themselves and spark up. Smoking in the flight deck is not permitted, though, so no fear of coming back to the apartment reeking of Chesterfields.
No wild stories of pay2fly FOs messing things up here though, flights are pretty calm, flying around Afghanistan is beautiful, the Hindu Kush mountains, the beautiful sunrises and sunsets, and the skies full of stars are something to behold. ATC around Kabul and the surrounded area are competent, and professional, they are Turkish, and up in Mazar-I-Sharif they are Uzbek and Emiratis. Kandahar has local controllers, but their schedule is unpredictable, so you’ll often find it is unexpectedly uncontrolled. Herat is uncontrolled 24/7.
Dispatchers and ground teams at KBL have years of experience since pre-fall of Kabul, and are good at their jobs, let them crack on without micromanaging which is something other Captains find hard to do. All ground equipment and services one might expect from an international airport, are available in KBL. Lots of military equipment still sits about in KBL, you might even see your dispatcher or other airport personnel full sending it out to your aircraft in a former NATO armoured vehicle, ammunition-less machine gun still swinging away in the top turret. Despite what you see on social media, most of it still sits broken and rotting away at the airport, not being fixed and used by the Taliban, thankfully.
It’s the smaller airports where it can get interesting. The apron at Herat is pretty small, and if there are other aircraft on the ground, getting on and off stand can be a bit hairy. Wingwalkers don’t exist, so use your best judgement, don’t be a hero because they won’t welcome you with open arms if you slam her into the terminal here. In Mazar-i-Sharif, you park facing the terminal, so if the tug goes tech, or runs out of diesel, which unfortunately is a more regular occurrence than you’d like, it’s an hours long wait for anything to get moving again.
There is no ACARS at Kam Air, and no means of contacting the company at all unless you’re on the ground, something to note if you face an issue enroute and require a diversion or MX on the ground. You’ll get to know the flying environment eventually, and the expectations the company set for you in situations like this. For example, they would rather you nosedive into the desert than divert into Erbil. Reason unknown, but this kind of stuff you’ll learn as you go.
You’ll get a few odd warnings here and there, these archaic beasts have their demons afterall, maybe one or two that will give you a scare, but ultimately, nothing you won’t be able to deal with. YA-KME for example, has a strange little thing where you’ll get an ECAM Red ENG 3 FIRE after you detent into CLB. For f*ck sake, don’t discharge the bottles, there’s no fire. It’ll shut up after 3 or 4 seconds. Again, reason unknown, everybody just kind of lives with it’s quirks now. KME is commonly referred too as “Kill Me”, as this is the aircraft with the most random issues. Brake temps breaking the charts when you start up from cold and dark in DXB for example. You’ll get used to them, and you’ll get used to which ones are “KME Normal” and KME actually trying to kill you.
Positioning flights on Kam Air - You’ll be in Business Class, usually the only pax in business class are positioning crew. One A343 is in an all Y config, but fear not, you’ll get a whole row to yourself 100% of the time. Positioning with other airlines (Serene or FlyDubai) will be on a basic fare in Y with no checked bags or extras, which aren’t required anyway.
Finally, 99% of the time your duties will end with a 2010 arrival into DXB. If positioning, you’ll stay onboard and not deboard with pax. Close the aircraft up, take the bus back to T2, part ways with the cabin crew and then hop into the trusty Nissan Patrol which will take you back to Naif.

Layovers/Daystops:
Istanbul layovers are okay. You’ll stay in an unbranded hotel just off of the airport with the whole crew. You’ll take the hotels own airport shuttle to and from the airport. No meals are included in your stay, only for the cabin crew, but Kam Air loads you and the FO “packed breakfasts” for these trips. If you want to venture into the city, you can, but it’s bloody far away, and this isn’t common for people to do. Usually you’ll spend your time in a comfortable bed which isn’t a regular occurrence for you, and have a couple of beers. Pickup is inexplicably early, 3 hours before departure, sometimes you’re leaving the hotel before the f*cking thing has left Kabul, so you’ll just end up hovering about in the massive terminal and hope the cabin crew don’t do a runner. If one of two of them do run off, which has, and does still happen, there’s not much you can do. You’re torn, no part of you wants to go dobbing people into a tyrannical “government”, but you’re conscious of your responsibility as a Captain of an aircraft. It’s a tough line to toe, so you give Ops a quick call to inform them of the situation, you don’t mention specifically who has gone, but just confirm with them that we are good to operate back reduced crew, and how many pax offloads might be required (it’s always zero).

Islamabad layovers are okay too, you’ll stay in a very fancy 5* hotel which is a common chain in this part of the world. The hotel is in the city. Again, no meals included in the room, only for the cabin crew. No packed breakfasts either. Shame. The hotel has an amazing breakfast though, and is not expensive, depending who you speak to, they’ll often let you in free of charge anyway.

Kabul; On your first time, it’s very much a case of trying not to !!!!! your pants really. You’re assured by the others you’ll be fine, but something within you doesn’t believe them. Disembarking the aircraft, the crew will make their way to a bus which takes them to the Kam Air head office, while you and the FO and anybody else daystopping will head into the main terminal building. You pass through a very quick “customs” check, obviously manned by the Taliban. On the first occasion, the guy looked at your passport and ran off shouting “ENGLESI ENGLESI”. Nearly pulled the trigger on the aforementioned soiling of the pants there. Eventually he returned, and waved you off.
From there, if you’re on a daystop, you’ll be picked up in a Kam Air bus, and taken to a 5* hotel in the city, the same hotel chain as the one you stay at in Islamabad. A bloke with an AK47 sits at the front of the bus next to driver, nobody really knows who he is, is he there to protect you or to watch you? Either way, he won’t speak to you and will stay out of your way. Meals are included at this hotel, which is also equipped with a Spa and a pool. It’s difficult to get any meaningful rest at first though, obviously, considering the environment. You’ll settle in after your first few trips, and the Spa(charged in $US) and Pool become your go to places, and the restaurant serves some very nice meals, of which you can have as many as you like on the company dime. Exactly 2.5 hours prior to departure, the same bus will return to pick you up from the hotel, this time taking you to the Kam Air head office which is just off of the airport. Here, you’ll go up to the Crew Briefing floor, where you will meet the cabin crew and brief for the next sector, whether it be back to DXB or off to another destination. Following the briefing, another bus will take you around to either the Domestic or International terminal, where you will pass through a separate crew search, and head out to the aircraft together. The upside to this process, is that if the aircraft is late inbound, you can stay inside the Crew Briefing Room which is fairly comfortable with a couple of sofas, a TV and drinks machines.
If you’re not on a planned daystop (8:59 or less), you’ll be escorted into the International Terminal, and you’ll spend the entirety of your wait inside the airport terminal. You’re given access to the VIP lounge, which is generally quiet but you are not able to rest. Drink the coffee and water here, but don’t touch the food unless you want to come down with a serious case of Trouser Juice at FL350. It’s pleasant enough, but there’s no internet in the terminal, so it can get boring pretty quickly. Western newspapers are available to read, although usually a day behind. Around 2 hours prior to departure, you’ll be taken by bus to the Kam Air Head Office via Customs, where you can sit out the remainder of your sentence. This is far more comfortable, you can wait on the crew briefing floor, or there are a few more private rooms to catch some sleep, and go sit in a clean toilet. You can head up to the top floor and sit with the OCC guys which is always interesting to watch behind the scenes. Hit the flight planner with $20 and he’ll file you at Cost Index whatever-you-want. From here you’ll then meet the crew, brief, and head out to the a/c.
You’ll never come across any Taliban during your stays, other than at customs, whether that’s planned by the company, or just pure luck. The locals are all very friendly and hospitable, if not a little confused at why you’re there, but always friendly nonetheless.

Payday:
Contract states you’ll be paid by the 5th of every month. Pay arrived in the early hours of the 5th every month, without issue. Any pay discrepancies must be taken to the contractor who will take it to Kam Air and is often rectified in the following pay.
Pay was never late, so no complaints from us.
The 6 month bonus is paid alongside your salary, as promised.

End of Contract/Resignation:
There’s only so much of this kind of flying one can take, a lot of guys don’t see out the full year, while some will extend and extend for years. After 10 months, you decide enough is enough, and so you send your 2 week notice of resignation to the contractor and time it so it coincides with your 20 days off. You can, if you wish, get your logbook stamped during your daystop in KBL prior to leaving.
It will take around 4 days for your roster, and Kam Air, to catch up with the news, but soon enough your roster will get wiped. After around 2 weeks you’ll lose access to your roster and emails, so make sure you get screenshots of relevant information you might need.

Final salary is paid on time, and you head home to the family with a pocket full of cash, a phone full of new friends, and a load more stories to tell.

Conclusion:
Not as tasty as the Yemenia one, thankfully, but thought it might interest some of you here who are looking to head out there on this contract, or for those of you who are just interested in these things. Comments/Questions welcome.