Not many people have the experience required to go to China and be in command of an Airbus. The amount of pilots worldwide that meet that requirement is pretty small, vs. someone requiring a CL-65 or EMB-145, 170/190 type.

The Chinese medical is insanely hard, I have had two close friends go over there and two others I've known that didn't make it past the interview.

The pay is OK but you put up with a lot. It's not the US over there. I would gladly make $100k less and be able to stay in the US.

Same with the ME airlines, from an RJ seat they look nice but do a little research. Again, those airlines are extremely selective, it's not like they are coming to US hubs and staging recruiting sessions picking up guys left and right. Then factor in living in a "compound" in the desert surrounded by...desert...and many US enemies. You can't go four wheeling, skiing, fishing, boating, etc. on your time off like in the states. You basically fly and live at "home".

Back in 2005-2008 time frame my own commuter lost just under 20% of its work force annually to attrition, and the movement was QUICK back then. NWA, UAL, DAL, US were all hiring as well as SWA and Spirit expanding like crazy. The movement is about half there as it was 8 years ago currently.