NAS Airlines - Saudi Arabia

[Foxhound]

Anyone have any additional information about NAS Airlines out of Saudi? What kind of TT are people getting hired with and what is it like working there....pros & cons... Is it worth leaving a US regional for?

This is what I've found so far:

- FO pay is $8500/mo
- 6 weeks on/3 weeks off - positive space ticket home
- 12 month contract
- NO Spirits Allowed

 

[Kaudbron]

I found some old info on pprune didn't look good at all, sounded like they had a bunch of 170s sitting around with no one to fly them? Pm me and I can send you a copy of the 170 FO contract from Flight Crew Solutions. You'll be based in Riyadh or Jedah.

Applicability Airbus A320 family and Embraer 170/190 rated First Officers

Qualification requirement JAA/FAA/ICAO Commercial / IR
Class 1 medical
Total time; 1,000 hours plus
Jet; 500 hours plus
Minimum age 21, maximum age 50 years

the website I got the contract info is flightcrewsolutions.com

I'm about to be furloughed and I'm steering away from it, Dubai is one thing but Saudi Arabia defiantly isn't for me....

 

[ifly4u]

I looked in to this recently and I layed out all the pros and cons. The deal breaker for me was safety. Saudi Arabia, particuarly Riyadh, is not any place you want to be.

 

[FirstMate]

I wouldn't want to live in Riyadh necessarily, but Jeddah or the Eastern Province is fairly 'civilized' and friendly from what I've seen. I feel just as safe or more safe in and around those areas more so than I do walking the streets of Anytown Metropolis, USA. Everywhere has its ghettos and rough parts of town. You know where your place is...be smart about where you go, just as you would in the States.

I've always gotten a cold and unwelcoming feeling when in Riyadh. But maybe they are isolated encounters?

 

[OBX]

FoxHound:

What contract company is that with? I saw the terms of a position with Nasair through Flight Crew Solutions and it's not as good as the one you have described.

Thanks!

 

[5w5flyer]

Storm Aviation. I too am steering away from Saudi Arabia. I'll take the job there, but only if that is the only offer I get.

 

[AC560]

Everywhere has its ghettos and rough parts of town.

They don't cut your head off with a steak knife in the bad sections of Detroit though....

 

[avbug]

I feel just as safe or more safe in and around those areas more so than I do walking the streets of Anytown Metropolis, USA.

You really shouldn't. Perhaps you haven't spent any appreciable time there, or lived there. Perhaps you weren't aware that the US consolate was pulled out of Jeddah the year before last after it was raked with automatic weapons fire, or of a terrorist attack just north of there. Or the executions of people from a compound adjacent to ours, two years ago. Or two different roundups of terrorists in-country in the last year and a half, some 200 each time, ready to attack with explosives, weapons, and vehicles...and plans to attack compounds, US citizens, oil facilities, and aircraft in Saudi Arabia...and on it goes. Perhaps you missed the declaration by the Chief Justice in Saudi arabia two years ago, stating that it's okay to kill the owners or purveyors of cable television if it contains what Islam might deem inappropriate material. Or the couple caught living together in a compound near us...who were each given 600 lashes, six months in prison (where they don't provide you with food or water, and you can die if someone doesn't come care for you)...then deported out of the country. Or perhaps even the fact that under Sharia law, your life is legally deemed at 50% that of a Muslim.

The big difference between walking around in a big city in the US, and walking around in Jeddah or Riyadh or any other town there in the Kingdom is that in the big western city, you're one of a million people, any one of whom could possibly run into trouble by freak coincidence. In the Kingdom, you're a very small minority, and a standing declaration of war exists over your head. You're a hated minority, considered a threat, and more than one organization exists which has as it's highest priority finding you and hurting you if it is able to do so.

It's not at all the same as a big western city.

You can get away with a lot there, or you could be the next al qaeda poster child. More people go there and come away without getting in trouble than do...but the threat is very, very real.

You can do better...go somewhere else.

NAS won't be your friend, either. Their people are unhappy. They don't tend to pay on time. They have long contracts, have reduced their time off, increased their work time, be careful when you consider the pay, because it's not what you think. If you haven't had the pleasure of working with arabs before and coming to understand what it really means to be a second class citizen, give it a shot.

 

[waka]

You really shouldn't. Perhaps you haven't spent any appreciable time there, or lived there. Perhaps you weren't aware that the US consolate was pulled out of Jeddah the year before last after it was raked with automatic weapons fire, or of a terrorist attack just north of there. Or the executions of people from a compound adjacent to ours, two years ago. Or two different roundups of terrorists in-country in the last year and a half, some 200 each time, ready to attack with explosives, weapons, and vehicles...and plans to attack compounds, US citizens, oil facilities, and aircraft in Saudi Arabia...and on it goes. Perhaps you missed the declaration by the Chief Justice in Saudi arabia two years ago, stating that it's okay to kill the owners or purveyors of cable television if it contains what Islam might deem inappropriate material. Or the couple caught living together in a compound near us...who were each given 600 lashes, six months in prison (where they don't provide you with food or water, and you can die if someone doesn't come care for you)...then deported out of the country. Or perhaps even the fact that under Sharia law, your life is legally deemed at 50% that of a Muslim.

The big difference between walking around in a big city in the US, and walking around in Jeddah or Riyadh or any other town there in the Kingdom is that in the big western city, you're one of a million people, any one of whom could possibly run into trouble by freak coincidence. In the Kingdom, you're a very small minority, and a standing declaration of war exists over your head. You're a hated minority, considered a threat, and more than one organization exists which has as it's highest priority finding you and hurting you if it is able to do so.

It's not at all the same as a big western city.

You can get away with a lot there, or you could be the next al qaeda poster child. More people go there and come away without getting in trouble than do...but the threat is very, very real.

You can do better...go somewhere else.

NAS won't be your friend, either. Their people are unhappy. They don't tend to pay on time. They have long contracts, have reduced their time off, increased their work time, be careful when you consider the pay, because it's not what you think. If you haven't had the pleasure of working with arabs before and coming to understand what it really means to be a second class citizen, give it a shot.

such accounts contribute to illustrating how ridiculous and hypocritical it is that we have an embargo on friggin' Cuba while we kiss the asses of Saudis and the Chinese.

 

[tyuwerty]

You really shouldn't. Perhaps you haven't spent any appreciable time there, or lived there.

I have and I am here now. I do feel completely safe. Do you really live here??

Perhaps you weren't aware that the US consolate was pulled out of Jeddah the year before last after it was raked with automatic weapons fire,

The consulate was closed in 2004. It is open now: http://jeddah.usconsulate.gov/service.html
The year before last it was shot at by 2 or 3 uys running away from the police. Hardly a concerted attack.

or of a terrorist attack just north of there.

What attack? the French tourists? It was disgusting what happened to them but the where in the wrong place at the wrong time. Again, not a planned attack by any means. The people that did where all caught and executed.

Or the executions of people from a compound adjacent to ours, two years ago.

I have been here for over 3 years and don't recall this one. What is your compound?

Or two different roundups of terrorists in-country in the last year and a half, some 200 each time, ready to attack with explosives, weapons, and vehicles...and plans to attack compounds, US citizens, oil facilities, and aircraft in Saudi Arabia...and on it goes.

Yes there were 2 huge round ups. Their stated goal was the oil fields. Not everything that you outline.

Perhaps you missed the declaration by the Chief Justice in Saudi arabia two years ago, stating that it's okay to kill the owners or purveyors of cable television if it contains what Islam might deem inappropriate material.

That happened this last week.

Or the couple caught living together in a compound near us...who were each given 600 lashes, six months in prison (where they don't provide you with food or water, and you can die if someone doesn't come care for you)...

Not saying that didn't happen, but the water and food portion of what you say is BS.

Or perhaps even the fact that under Sharia law, your life is legally deemed at 50% that of a Muslim.

BS!!! If anything I get treated better than most people here because I am from a Western country.



NAS won't be your friend, either. Their people are unhappy. They don't tend to pay on time. They have long contracts, have reduced their time off, increased their work time, be careful when you consider the pay, because it's not what you think. If you haven't had the pleasure of working with arabs before and coming to understand what it really means to be a second class citizen, give it a shot.

What you say about NAS is true. I just see life in the magic kingdom completely differently.