Our B744's are being withdrawn from pax services and replaced by B777ER's.
There are major redesigns of airspace in the Pearl River Delta (HKG, MFM, SZX, ZUH, GHZ) - something akin to SOCAL airspace - that will significantly shorten departures and arrivals to Europe and points Northwest. This will allow CX to schedule 3 man ops within our FTL's.
This means all S/O's will be redundant. Although there will be retirements and resignations, terminations and loss of licence "movements", all the slack will be taken up the S/O's already in the system.
CX is committed to a localization program, recruiting and training local S/O's.
They have further expanded the program to lure those wanting to fly but unable to pay for the necessary training. The deal? Sign on under local terms and conditions. Sounds benign, but it denies the candidate all expat benefits such as housing and education allowances. For the USD200K the candidate "saves", they will give up, over a career of 30 years, about USD5 MILLION in "benefits" under the present scheme. And the "cadet" is also bonded for four years.
I wanted to thank you and few others publicly for all your help and the information you all shared with me when I was going threw selection process with CX. Its people like you who attracted me to want to join CX. Just like many others I have been waiting for over year now and 2012 is long time away and truth be told financially doesn't make sense to join at that time as I will start making over 100K in 2010 and its hard to take a other pay cut, I talked to few others who have been waiting for class date and they feel the same way, I know 2 of the them are headed to EK. CX was always my airline of choice and with your help I was able to pass the interview and for that I thank you.
You're welcome. I have always endeavored to tell it the way it is here - no bells or whistles and without the shiny new jet enthusiasm of others. It's a job - it used to be an outstanding job. As they say out here "horses for courses".*
...Thank you from me as well. I also will always tell you the way it is here, from my personal perspective, both good and bad. While I have not had the years in as Cpt. U, I have had many dealings with management as well as my share of tragedies and successes.
Coming from a Naval tactical jet background, shiny-new jet syndrome is not a factor as no flying, for me, will compare to operating off the ship. What is important to me is maximizing pay and quality of life while staying airborne. I have squadron mates in most every airline in the states and some overseas and we compare airlines often. I compile that info and try to give my best conclusion on this company. As said before, your satisfaction with an airline is very personal. For one example of many, some love the domestic routes and fun-loving feel of SWA while others want to live overseas and fly four hole'rs over oceans.
Best of luck to you and hopefully we will all find our Shangri La someday.
However, (bearing in mind that CX peg their "competitive minimums" on who's out there) I would say that TODAY you would have a shot with about 5000TT, Multi/IFR (of course) and command time exceeding 2000 hrs on anything bigger than a CRJ
We fly 2 man crew on any sector < 9 hrs, 3 man >9 <15, and 4 man >15.
We have no more "classic" freighters (no F/E's in CX), many -400F's, -400ERF's, -400BCF's and our first 747-8F is about a year away.
At present rates of retirement and growth, expect 15 years as an F/O.
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