mpflis

65K.....that would be an desirable currency exchange rate. try dividing by 7.8!!! and not sure of which airlines you speak of that pay double that to start as an SO? FO's at CX don't even make that in their base salary, nor senior FO's. CX is recruiting yanks, kiwis, poms, aussies, euros....and I can guarantee you that with an unfavorable exchange rate, they wouldn't get many poms, and euros if the salary was half of "other airlines". As far as current time for SO upgrade, it is approx 2.5 years.....but likely to increase again due to hiring of DEFO on the 777, and Oasis/Dragon debacle. And yes, I was a SO, and started bypass pay after appox 2 years. As far as the SO job in general, it is amazing that people say its not a good time....obviously these people need to find more to their life than flying. Lots of time off, reasonable pay (great pay if you take advantage of the housing), and very little stress. Who cares about command legs, and training when commands are approx ten years away. Anyone with any experience coming in (ie not cadets) has more than enough hours to appreciate the job and minimum sectors. base pay is approx 50, 56, 63K for the first three years....then add hourly duty, 13th month, profit share, extra hours, per diem, provident fund (some of which are discretionary, and depend on the month...so not possible to give a definite figure). Then you have housing which is approx 4K/month currently (first 2 years...then double that). I'm not going to give a figure that estimates total year pay, but if you add everything up, I guarantee that its allows a more than reasonable existence. As far as time to get an interview, I had ~4000 hours, as well as the majority of people I went through training with, but have met others that had around the 2500-3000 mark. I would bet it is currently quite competitive considering the state of the airline industry.