Originally Posted by
Salukipilot4590
If you have the right to work here by all means come work! It's a fun job if you don't mind the crippling depression, loneliness, financial pressure, and terrible health aspects.
If Juan Pablo wants to fly at Mesa God help him he should fly at Mesa.
What ****es me off however is the fact that a brit can come over here and just about jump into the 121 world while I have no chance in hell of ever seeing the inside of a BA cockpit (or any of their regionals).
Just an example.
Should be a two-way street and an international marketplace for talent....yet it's not.
Competition is a good thing...it allows me to see just how much better I am at what I do.
I'm a Brit who flies for a regional over here. Let me set a couple of things straight. As things stand today it is entirely a two way street, as long as you have the correct work visas. I'm married to an American, so I have a green card. I can work in the USA or Europe as I have both an FAA ATP and an EASA ATPL. You could just as easily go and work in Britain or anywhere else in Europe if you had the visa to do so and the right licences. The USA will not give a visa for a pilot (except for a very few exceptions for instructor jobs at the entry level). Likewise, the UK won't give a visa out for a pilot job without you having some claim to one via family or marriage.
Regarding jobs in Europe; there aren't any. Well, not unless you are a 200hour wonder kid with an extra $50k burning a hole in your back pocket, in which case easyJet and Ryanair will welcome you in with open arms. Once you're in you'll be on a zero hours (no min guarantee) contract. I have friends who have made less than £200 a month on an Airbus over the winter as they only flew one flight all month.
BA are not hiring. Not for experienced pilots anyway. They haven't hired since 2011. They have a cadet scheme for individuals who have never flown before, but word on the street is that DEP hiring for experienced pilots won't start again until 2015, and even then it is expected to be less than 50 guys.
BA also do not have regionals, well not in the sense that we do over here. They have one subsidiary which is fully owned by them, it's called BA Cityflyer and is based at London City airport. They operate E190s and E170s on European routes. That's it though. There are no regionals or outsourced pilots.
Virgin Atlantic are only hiring 747 and A340 rated pilots, and only 10 of them at that.
I have a number of American friends who are flying for airlines in Europe, including one at British Airways and a few others at Flybe, easyJet, Ryanair and KLM.
The USA is by no means hard done by in terms of foreign pilots taking jobs. It is in fact extremely hard to get a work authorisation, the process can even be tricky when you're married to an American citizen. There is most definitely not an open door policy, although I'm sure many European pilots would love the chance to fly here due to the much wider availability of jobs.