Originally Posted by sailingfun

You have clearly never been into Bogata! I have flown to India many times and never found it that hard. The decompression routes are easy and the controllers are not bad and speak good english. The only difficult part could be if you fly the Northern Hindu Kush route which is not used now. The divert airports are all very easy and mostly flat and in the middle east you are normally in radar a good part of the time. The problem in SA is the divert airports are almost never flat and never easy. Controllers are bad and speak lousy english. The further south you go the worse it gets. Africa has its own set of issues including medical, political and a lack of suitable diverts. I will take India any day! The theatre quals are based on actual experience and issues that have been problems at Delta/NWA and other airlines. Some of the training is FAA mandated such as magnetic unreliabilty areas and Delta has no choice in the matter. Once things stabilize a bit you might see Delta go back to a 1 year footprint but its not likely with the FAA watching us closely.