The hiring numbers, as I've been told, are 15 pilots per year for the next two years, then a ramp up close to the end of 2010. Around 50 pilots currently on 'yes' letters and apparently they are still interviewing; sticking to their strategy of retaining NZ pilot's for the mainline operation I reckon.

I still like Air NZ as the preferred employer in the country, but Jet Star is certainly worth the look as they have very good T&C's and with their long haul aircraft coming in an a year or two they could be quite a force out of NZ internationally. PacBlue and Jetconnect are also a pretty good place to get one's foot in the door, flying a jet and living here, although I'm not sure what the long term for Jetconnect is. QF says that they want to keep it as a connection with the outbound premium long haul product, and to keep the Qantas name going here.

If you are looking at Air NZ for the future I would not be too put off by the numbers on yes letters. When I was hired there were quite a few people who had been waiting for many months, and I snuck in in front of them. So, if the end of 2010 is what you had in mind as far as being ready to go to Air NZ then I think it looks pretty positive. Just my two cents though.