There are/were Americans in Australia, they scabbed during the dispute in 89

Vizz is right though, anybody from the outside trying to break into Australian aviation via a legitimate route will find it nearly impossible. That is one country where seemingly everyone wants to be a pilot. They create so many pilots that thousands find themselves outside of Oz looking for work.

To quote a colleague of mine ( and one heck of a good pilot ), " converting my ratings to an Australian ATPL was one of the hardest things I have ever done ".

It is theoretically possible to use "commercial pilot" as a method to immigrate to Australia. You would need to get at least an Australian CPL, be under age 40, and deposit A$100,000 into an account. That would most likely get you enough "points" to immigrate. Quite a few Zims have done that. Their families are there but they still work outside of Oz.

It would take quite a few years, but with that method you could end up with an Australian citizenship and then maybe have a shot at Qantas.

The problem with Oz is that is the only good job there. QA's new start-up low cost operators virtually guarantee that very few people will be hired by mainline in the future.


Typhoonpilot