Foreign pilots
 

Howdy Y’all,

I’m an A320 FO from Saudi Arabia. I work for FlyNas and I have around 3000 hours on the bus. I grew up in the United States and I always wanted to move back to the States. I’m wondering what is my chances of getting hired with DL ?

FYI: I did my flight training in the USA + college degree from Embry-Riddle. I never flight instructed neither worked for a regional carrier.

I’d say apply to any regional, they will hire you over the phone right away like Mesa! Or any other regional that suites you where you wanna live at!
Then getting part 121 with the the bus and the Embry degree will increase your chances !! Delta likes fancy degrees!

It’s impossible to say. With a clean record and those quals, you’re certainly hireable by DL. The trick is getting them to actually call. Many qualified applicants haven’t cracked that code.

The eternal question: do you have the right to work in the US? Green card will do.

GF

I don’t want to do regional; since I’m already working for a major in Saudi. I want to jumb to major right away. I’m thinking my A320 time might help me a lot; since DL has lots of A321 on the way. I would save the company lots of money for training.

That’s with every major Airlines!!! It’s all about networking I guess.

Yes sir, I have a TSA clearance + If I get a call for an interview with any U.S company the U.S embassy will issue me a working Visa. The United States and Saudi Arabia are in a very good term “Diplomatically”. We have a lot of American pilots in Saudi Arabia.

You may not want to do the regional route but that may be able to help you. We have an Iranian guy that flew the TU-154 over in Kazakhstan, immigrated to the US and spent a few years at a regional.

Honestly, the A320 time doesn’t mean a whole lot. Delta is required to run everyone through the same training course, which means everyone cost the company the exact same with regards to training.

By US standards your time is low, and if you don't have TPIC it's lower still.

Being foriegn will not hinder you, but typical civilians needs 6K-8K+ and at least 2k TPIC to really be on the radar of the good majors. It's possible to get called with much less, even less than what you have, but nobody knows what it takes to get called with low time. I suspect they might do it randomly, just to string along junior regional pilots, keeping their hope alive.

You could most likely get called by ULCC's in the US with your current experience (especially a bus operator).

Going to a regional would probably make you more competitive, sooner, but only you can decide if it's worth it. FYSA, there were several foriegn airline captains in my legacy new hire class.

First off all I would like to thank all of you for your input,

Currently I’m under commuting contract with FlyNas I commute back and forth to the states to see my fiancée. I work 20on/10off and sometimes 20on/20off and I make an avg of 15k USD a month tax free!! 17k if I work aggressively. I understand that money is not everything and it’s the QOL that I’m seeking. The truth should be said; it would really suck for me to work for a regional especially when I think about how much $$$ I used to make. I understand that I don’t have any pic time but I also heared that DL hired regional FOs with no time on the left seat at all, in fact they only did regional for 2-3 years. “Heared it from a compass recruiter”

Now, if stick with my airline and build another 3000 hours which would get me 6k hours total, would that make me more competitive? I might be able to jumb left seat after passing 5k hours.

I’m really surprised that legacy carriers doesn’t really care if an applicant have 3000+ hours on the same equipment they operate.
Aviation rules in Saudi is FAA in fact all the airlines trains their pilots in the states.