Sounds great!

A320 in the spring. . .as we say in NZ, "yea right".

Air NZ is a great company to work for. The hiring process is done by the line pilots (three days worth) so we have ended up with a very good grade of driver. I haven't been with the company long but have found it to be very easy to work for/with.

I imagine we'd be seeing redundancies before we hire again, but that would only be for a short period if at all. They have been offering LWOP, but should be back up to hiring in 2008, hopefully sooner but with the age 60 thing, and a bunch of over sixties in the right seat of Daddies Yacht waiting to back to the left it could be a while before there is any movement. That said, my understanding is that we have less than 30 guys and gals waiting on yes letters and they'll be sucked up pretty quick once the hiring does start again. . .I think. Speculation is my thing as you can see.

By the by, permanent residence, not citizenship is the requirment for employment. As an aside, Air Nelson is hiring for the Saab 340, with movement onto the Dash-8 about six months, or so my friends there have been told.

Great job, great bunch of people to work with so well worth the drama and wait. If I can help let me know.

alright thanks
so ANZ is switching to the A320, I know they were back and forth a few times, between that the 737. Capt. Pattie (747 fleet manager) has also said it will be awhile.
thx for the updates

Well if you know Keith then you should have a pretty good in when it comes to hiring; he and the other fleet managers take the advice of the interviewer pilots when crunch time comes on Monday afternoon (I take it you're well aware of the interview process), but they do have final authority. I don't think we are changing to the A320. The company seams pretty happy with the 733 on domestic, and it still does some pacific routes. We have, in fact, sent back a couple A320's. At any rate, the entry level positions are doser on any of the heavies or 737 FO. The A320 is a more senior position in either seat, hence my comment.

Residency wont do it...but if youve been a resident there for three years you can get citizenship. I got mine back in 1994.

An "All Blacks" fan, eh?

I'm afraid spitfire1500 is incorrect, although he does support the correct team. No need to argue as I fly for Air NZ and I am a permanent resident, not a citizen. Icould not get an interview until I received my residency, but the day I did I re-applied; had an interview and job within two months; quite lucky indeed.

Oh yeas, I understand that Zeal320 (exFreedom Air) flight attendants are being trained on the B767. Could just be a rumor but it appears to be correct. We have heard from managment before that 767's with yellow tails could be a reality, so the good old birds could stay around for a while yet.

Just out of curiosity, what is the compensation at AZ?

Just shy of $70NZ per year to start. That is for cruiser on any of the heavies and right seat on the 737, and is based on 60 hours per month. After 60 we get a graduated increase in incentice pay, rising about 1.45 times the base at 90 hours. After one year and holding an ATPL you go to fourth year pay at about $80 per year, going up from there and depending on the aircraft and seat. The base pay for a 12 year skipper on the 744 is just over $240NZ, and the 777 is about $220. There are percentage increases for training, checking and flight instructor, so if you are a top scale 744 skipper, working very hard and doing training and checking, then the pay is pretty good I think. We also get meal and overnight allowances but these depend on where you are (how expensive it is at that station). All in all I think the pay is pretty spot on. The Kiwi dollar is normally pretty low worldwide, so for example my first year will be $49K in US dollars for cruiser on the 767 as there will be pretty much zero incentive pay. We pax around quite a bit so end up with alot of our time pro-rated, but it doesn't normally make incentive. None the less, it's an excellent company and the pilots are are very easy to get along with.

Hope that answers your question somewhat.

Yep, good enough. Thanks for the response. My brother is a mechanic for AZ right now in Aukland and I was just curious.