And futhermore, the higher paying replacements for the DC9's over the last 2.5 years (49 MD-90's). So we got that going for us.

I know what you're up to t, and I'm not falling for the bait.......

 

Oh Tsquare.....

 

August 23, 2013, 6:54 p.m. ET
The Wall Street Journal

Chinese Airlines Lure Pilots With Double the Pay of U.S. Captains
Carriers Boost Salaries to Hire Seasoned Crews, Causing Shortage Across Asia

By JEFFREY NG
HONG KONG—China is snapping up the world's supply of senior pilots, contributing to a global shortage and creating headwinds for Asia's fast-expanding airlines.

China is among the world's fastest-growing air-travel markets, with domestic passenger traffic second only to the U.S., with the market expanding 14.7% in June compared with a year earlier, according to the International Air Transport Association.

The rising middle class in China means millions more people are taking to the skies. Beijing plans soon to allow even more growth in its tightly controlled sector by encouraging the development of budget airlines, which are already booming across Asia.

Chinese carriers have more than 800 commercial airliners on order, on top of 2,088 now flying. Each plane requires about six two-person flight crews, creating demand for thousands of new pilots. Chinese airlines lack sufficient locally trained candidates.

The shortage illustrates an endemic problem in China's rapidly expanding economy, where the development of infrastructure and professional skills hasn't kept pace with surging demand. The country also struggles to retain expatriate talent amid worsening pollution concerns and rising consumer prices.

China isn't alone in its need. Boeing Co. estimates that the broader Asian-Pacific region will require 185,600 new pilots between 2012 and 2031, accounting for 40% of global pilot demand. The region today has 56,000 pilots, or roughly 26% of the global total, according to Boeing.

Chinese airlines are wooing experienced foreign pilots by upping the pay for captains. Some carriers are advertising annual salaries and benefits of up to $270,000, or roughly double the average wage of a U.S. airline captain.

"You've got a shrinking supply [of experienced pilots], so the answer is to increase pay," said Mark East, managing director at New Zealand-based Rishworth Aviation, the largest airline-pilot recruiting firm in Asia, with 600 contract pilots in the region. He said Chinese airlines have raised their pay offers to foreign pilots by up to 30% in the past 18 months to cope with the growing shortage.

Chinese airlines account for more than 60% of the recruitment postings for captains on the careers website of Flightglobal, an industry publication.

While China is training more local crews, pilots still need roughly a decade of experience before they can be promoted to captain. The air-travel boom has outpaced that maturation. Today, nearly all Chinese airlines employ foreign crews. Americans represent the largest proportion.

Chinese carriers started hiring foreign pilots in 2003. They now account for roughly 6% of the commercial-pilot workforce, with 1,778 foreign-pilot licenses issued as of last year, according to China's aviation regulator.

Among the Chinese airlines offering top salaries are Hainan Airlines Co., which is promoting net annual packages of up to $270,000, and Shenzhen Airlines Co., with packages valued at up to $231,600, according to the Flightglobal listings.

These salaries are on par with what the most senior captains at premium airlines make and well above world standards. Average captain's pay at a major U.S. airline is $135,000, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Rich Chinese compensation comes with heavy work loads, however. Paul Schneider, an Australian who worked as a Boeing 737 captain with a major Chinese airline in 2010 and 2011, said the duty times for foreign pilots in China were among the longest he's ever seen, particularly for those working short domestic flights.

China's appetite for senior pilots is hurting many smaller Asian upstarts, which too are eager to expand but must compete for crews.

"We are the ones feeling the pinch of the pilot shortage…the smaller carriers are in a battle to attract quality pilots," said David Wilmot, acting director of flight operations at Jet Asia Airways Co., a Thailand-based charter airline with six Boeing 767s that employs mostly foreign pilots.

Mr. Wilt says the exorbitant salaries some of the Chinese airlines are willing to pay are "just putting us out of the market" for pilots. Many airlines in Southeast Asia pay expat captains around half of some of the Chinese carriers' best recent offers.

Worsening the captain shortage: aging veterans, particularly in the U.S. "There is a tsunami of retirement which is now under way in the airline industry," said John Bent, a consultant to the International Air Transport Association, a global industry group. "We've got potentially the first big pilot supply problem" in years, he said.

The improving U.S. airline market is further aggravating Asia's problems because overseas American pilots are heading home, Asian airline executives say. Hiring foreign pilots was much easier three years ago, they say, but the supply has recently flattened out.

—Joanne Chiu contributed to this article.
Write to Jeffrey Ng at [email protected]

A version of this article appeared August 23, 2013, on page B3 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: China Lures World's Pilots.

 

I think Richard is paying attention to the economics of pilot retention globally with respect to the next contract. The fear has always been losing seniority by moving to another airline. Direct hire captains to these Chinese carriers don't have to deal with that given an advertised starting pay of $270K.

 

solution? offer $270k plus an american domicile. just do 12 day trips out of lax, sfo, jfk... fly 773s, 744s, 380s, etc and be a Captain right away...while your friends wallow for years on narrowbody reserve...

/posting on a Chinese made smartphone monitored by the NSA but not Delta until this fall

 

thoughts on 16-18 hr long call reserve lines paying reserve guarantee and 12 days off vs short call lines covering everything < 16 hours with 15... no wait... 16 days off.

poking around for pros and cons

 

I got the Dalpa survey call this afternoon. From the tone of the questions and the options of the answers, I'd surmise that they are planning on a representational vote in the not too distant future.

Questions were, as best I can remember them:

How satisfied are you with your LEC
How satisfied are you with the MEC
Do you think you have a strong contract
Is the contract enforced
Are you satisfied with the contract
How satisfied are you with ALPA
Have you heard of the DPA
How likely is it that you think there will be a vote for representation
What percentage of Delta Pilots do you think will vote for self representation
Will you vote for the DPA.

Not sure of the exact verbage of the questions. From the available answers you had to choose from for each question, about 1/2 way through I nearly hung up as it appeard to be a push poll. Then the questions got more pointed and interesting towards the end.

I've said in the past that I was done with Dalpa polling after they summarily ignored the contract survey (I'll believe that until it's PROVEN otherwise). However, this survey was different. I think they are trying to get a handle on a spiraling out of control situation.

I've been sitting on the fence the last couple of months. I'm none too impressed with Tim Caplingers rantings and foot in mouth press releases. However, as a VERY Sr SLC crew pointed out to me recently on a JS ride home....are there Alpa or Dalpa guys you don't like? But you continue to support them? Don't let your dislike of one individual dissuade you from the bigger picture of self-representation.

I'm sending in a card tomorrow. We need to vote on this BEFORE the next Sec 6....AND before Dalpa can have another give away of more 76 seaters and profit sharing for a cola raise.

 

That chapter is still being written I guess. But who wants to be the press to test going to a "company doctor" per company demand and coming back with a note saying "ops check good could not duplicate"? Now what? No harm no foul to 100 hours no matter what?

That said, I wouldn't want to be the doctor who puts his name to a "this guy wasn't really sick certificate" that leads to discipline of any kind with the incredibly high standards we have WRT self certifying and self grounding for, honestly, pretty much anything, including and especially a multitude of things no doctor's test can ever prove black and white anyway.

There may or may not be a few guys show up hacking and wheezing now but this isn't really about them. This is about the grey areas; the not too severe but distracting stomach aches, the slightly nauseous and many other things that, ironically any airline on earth will be the first to throw you under the bus for being a rebel maverick for showing up to fly with in the first place should metal be bent. If pilots perceive a career risk if they call in sick for just a little illness, many pilots will fly just a little sick. And usually it works out fine anyway, most of the time. So sick calls go down, and there's a value to that.

The real acid test here will be when and if they try to make an example out of someone for not being able to prove the unprovable.

 

Not sure if you're being sarcastic or not, but just to air this out, there are tons of things we as pilots are required by law to self ground for that would be transparent to thousands of other professions including many recreational activities. If you call in sick with a broken leg and are caught climbing Mt Everest, I guess they got you dead to rights. But you can drink beer with a headache or the squirts, paint the house with an upset stomach and even waterski with pink eye. Only one of those four things can be verified by a doctor most of the time even if they are all true.

No pilot, especially for a top tier safety first airline, should ever have to think twice about calling out for a legitimate illness, even if the condition in question is hard or impossible for a third party to "prove". To get to that point, you are going to get some blowback from a certain amount of dishonest behavior from some people from time to time. And that sucks. But it beats the alternative of even a small number of pilots potentially flying sick because they are worried about verifiability or discipline.

 

That's what I was telling shiznit the other day. That train is just about out of the tunnel- they may be getting serious too late, though. We may very well be going through a vote within a year.