Dragonair experience?
 

Has anyone flown for or interviewed with Dragonair? I know a couple Canucks who are with them, and they seems to love the lifestyle. Thanks

I'm supposed to be interviewing with them any day now, just waiting for my phone call/email to let me know.

KA is extremely bigoted when it comes to hiring; typically they don't hire US pilots. They have always been able to attract enough Aussies/Canucks and Brits to satisfy their requirements. Added to which they've always had a relatively small pilot group and you really have to know someone. My "in" is one of the Fleet Managers.

They were bought by CX last year and from what I can gather they're in a state of flux as far as hiring is concerned. The 74's have been transfered over to CX and I think people are waiting to see what CX does with the Airbus fleet.

They look for at least 4000TT, a large amount of jet time and a type rating. If you want to stand any chance of an interview, you'll have to go and meet the peeps in HR, in Hong Kong. It makes a huge difference if you actually make the effort to go and see them.

Dragonair was my first choice of airlines to go to in 2002. I speak relatively good Mandarin and had flown in Asia for three years previously. I had not flown the Airbus, but had over 10,000 hours total time when I applied. They did not reply to any of my applications so I decided to pay them a visit in Hong Kong. They were quite cordial and I discussed my application and desire to work for them and live in Hong Kong. A few weeks later they sent me a letter stating that I was not qualifed.:confused:

What was my crime?, I am an American.

Kenny has it right. They don't typically hire Americans. There might be a few there, but they do all of their recruiting in the UK, Australia, and Canada from what I can see.

So if you're a Yank you can pretty much forget a job with Dragonair.



Typhoonpilot

I wonder if that is still the case now that CX owns them, given the fact that CX hires americanos.

FYI, Dragon is not an ideal company to work for. 8 days off per month and they will fly your a$$ off....stay away if you can.

HR is still very much done the KA way. Until that's integrated into CX, it'll stay the same.

I have a great job currently, but also a bit of wanderlust. I'm also an oddball American who has dual Citizenship (Irish), a JAA license, and language skills. Thanks for the info. Maybe I'll move to Oz or NZ instead. :D

KA has its ups and downs. They are NOT anti yank but there are licence and tax issues that make Americans complex to hire.

I would much prefer to see some Americans join the company with the practical approach to flying instead of the upper crust poms we have trying to prove how difficult it is to fly an airbus.

Good on ya Kenny!

A was just in HKG and had beers with a number of CX and HKX guy's, one of whom is looking at Dragon. A couple of other guy's flew the B777. All of them flew quite a bit, so I recon that unless you are on the 744 with CX you could consider that the norm. The HKX guy was looking at Dragon as well and had some good ins; thought the program looked good, busy like HKX but good money and a very good housing allowance.

Again, well done and good luck mate.

Koru,

Yeah, unfortunately the magic call never materialised. CX taking over the KA 747's caused a few problems with KA's recruitment. It stopped, for a while anyway and another job came up. It didn't help that my contact at KA went out on Long Term Medical leave.

If you can get in, KA is a good gig. They have a comparable package to CX without the political training environment. Although the guys there would disagree, they don't work as hard as your average Regional pilot in the US.

Just did my initial interview there. Friend of mine that used to work at SZA got on there 3 years ago (he is French) and doing his upgrade now. Anyway, I met with two tall very attractive HK chicks with Aussie accents. Straight out of a James Bond movie. Interview lasted an hour. Very cold and not cordial whatsoever. Lady was looking through my logbooks (I have 3) going back 17 years. She asked me in 2006 if I was working full time how I could have flown a Hawker, Challenger 300 and 172 all in the same day. I explained that when I wasn't flying a trip for my company I could do contract. I told her I flew my friends 172 up to BED to do a test flight on an HS125 in prebuy. Then that evening flew the company CL30 from TEB back to SJC Either she thought I was full of **** or just couldn't get it through her head. Asked how I would feel being FO after being captain so many years. Asked about my wife who is Chinese. Only in the end did they smile but I honestly felt they knew right when I walked in the door. I wore a nice Lamborghini suit and it was like graphite color. Very sharp looking but not the standard navy blue red tie white shirt BS. Not sure if that made a diff. Funny thing was I got a letter less than 24 hours later that after lengthy consideration they decided not to proceed. Lengthy... My friend there tells me the training is insane. On recurrents they don't do any warm up sim, just straight away check flight Only 2 yanks there out of 500 Who knows

My quals: 7700 TT 7400 PIC over 5000 turbine PIC and current 737NG Capt in China last 5 years

Airspeed1974 ...... you forgot to cite 'Turkpilot' on Pprune. You've plagiarised his post. It's virtually a straight copy!

Not disputing the accuracy of your/his/her post though.

Lol, i know turkpilot VERY well........because that is me! I spent 2 years living in IST and when I joined Pprune I just happened to be in Turkey hence the name.

Hah no worries! I read your post here & thought 'this looks familiar'. Cheers:)

Did you also interview?

No, I work for big brother next door. From what I've heard from friends at KA though, they are in serious need of quality, experienced guys.

I have my initial interview with KA coming up this month. I haven't been able to find much on the interviews done recently at KA. If anyone has any knowledge or advice they can throw at me, it would be greatly appreciated.

I interviewed there around 3 months ago. The 2 ladies that conducted the interview while very attractive were extremely cold and didn't seem to know jack about aviation. You really need to act like your a very reserved person and I guess my sense of humor wasn't for them. I could tell right through the BS pleasantries and fake smiles.

The training is hard, upgrades are hard and I don't think I would have fit in there anyway. It's a very Anglo Saxon based company. Trust me on this and if you don't you will see for yourself

So did u get selected? What are they looking for now? Guys with lots of jet hours?

I didn't but I'm kinda glad. I think they are looking for the well mannered English gentleman type. I think I was a bit too honest when they asked me had I heard anything negative about the company. I told them yes, I heard you don't like to hire Americans. And this coming from people inside he company.

I haven't been an FO for over 10 years and they asked me about that and I said hey if I went to United I would start as FO so it's no big deal for me.

Anyway, I wouldn't go there unless I had nothing else. If you do get on be prepared for intense study. Also, in every airline I ever worked for you get 1 or 2 warm up sims. At KA, when you do your 6 month check your first sim is your check. No warm up. Fail 2 times for upgrade and you are barred for ever upgrading there.