cptgoldenhills1

So who is running the show for Peach? Also where can you find the application window?

The Dominican

Peach is part of the ANA group, they are most definitely running the show. As far as future hiring, they are going through the process of training the first group of pilots now along with getting the final certification from the JCAB, the consensus seems to be that they will have to tap into the expat market for pilots, there are some internal movements here in Japan (pilots from JetStar and other LCC's jumping ship) but there aren't enough pilots in the local market so they will hire expats at some point. As soon as I hear anything new I'll post some info about it.

cptgoldenhills1

Thanks Dominican good info!!!

seaplanenow744

To The Dominican -
Once again: thanks for all the info ! (delayed response on my end). Much appreciated. Seems like you have a good crew over there at Air Japan. (you guys give an appreciated and realistic view of things - here, and on the "other forum" - I follow that thread, too...).

Tried to "PM" you - but I'm too new to this forum and don't have the privilege. Anyhow - hope I can shout you guys some beers one of these days to say thanks for all the info.

I read carefully what you said about the roster, etc... I'm currently on another "Island" (won't mention the name), doing both pax/freight with a lot of 'middle of the night' departures, etc... Only 8 days home leave and absolutely NO TRAVEL DAYS... 24 AL days are used as 'travel days', you could say... Not ideal for commuting, but my wife lives with me on the said 'Island' - so home leave becomes a series of 'mini-vacations'... Not so bad, but I have a feeling your outfit would be better. No expansion on our fleet (probably forever?)... so I'm stuck on the current seat with no end in sight... I have a little bit of Jet PIC (900 hrs MD83), but not enough it seems, to get into the 'game' on a left seat... Lots of total time and lots of wide body (5,000 on 744)...

NCA would certainly be our first choice, so I appreciate hearing what's going on... Failing that - or if nothing comes up, we're looking seriously at your outfit (provided I can pass a Japanese medical or not -). Failing all of that, maybe I've got to back to flying floats because going to the Middle East just isn't appealing... (my wife loves the "home leave" time off that we have together - can't put a price tag on that).

Again Dominican - thanks for all the info ! Great to get a perspective from an expat on what is happening in Japan and certainly all the realities that go along with those contracts -

regards,
SPN744

The Dominican

Hello SPN 744

Since you are in the same boat as us (i think i know which company you are at) with crappy cargo mixed in with pax flying and you have read my post on the matter, then I'm not going to bore you with my roster blues! What I'm going to say is that either NCA or AJX will be an improvement for you in all aspects in my view, salary, time off and career progression. NCA for what I hear will begin hiring again later in the year and AJX will continue hiring as well, both have an upgrade program although as you have read in other forums, upgrade is not guaranteed and you probably are well aware of the fact that there is politics involved in the process and guys do get shut down for the upgrade, some of it is airmanship (most cases) but character and personality also plays a part, having said that there is an upgrade program that will give you wide body command at year 4 in the company and that is not common in the contract world, in your case I would say that it is worth it.

Good luck, let me know if you have questions.

kingairfun

How many pilots does AJX have? (With so few a/c how much attrition is alot?)


Any word on a few more days off? (Other than the new commuting day rules)


I'm weighing my future options (family life, current job which I'm home every night etc) vs. being able to live where we want and an increase in pay and huge upgrade in equipment with AJX.. (if it were to happen)

The Dominican

How many pilots does AJX have? (With so few a/c how much attrition is alot?)

We are shy of 200 pilots now, I don't know what you mean with "so few a/c" we don't have any airplanes, we are assigned a/c's from the mainline fleet.
Our pilot group is composed by guys from Australia and New Zealand, (our largest group) the US (now the second largest) the EU (many different countries from the EU and lumped together they are the third largest group) Latin America, a handful of guys from the former eastern block and a couple of Japanese contract pilots. The largest attrition by far is from guys from the US, they are taking recalls and going to the few places that are hiring, all at the expense of a big paycut but not surprising really. The rest of the pilots demographics have very litte attrition due to the fact that the jobs market in their home countries is worst than it is in the US. The attrition is crippling because ANA will like to expand AJX's route structure but because they don't have the numbers they will like to see (the projection before the economical downturn was that by now we should have been more than double the number we are today) so they can't assign the flying they would want us to perform.

Any word on a few more days off? (Other than the new commuting day rules)

Right now we have the ability to take 14 days in a row and commute the last day of your duty (10+2+2vacation days) that makes this the best commuting condition available anywhere (not withstanding our rostering, dollar devaluation, and politics riddled upgrade program) I don't expect to see more days off at the moment

I'm weighing my future options (family life, current job which I'm home every night etc) vs. being able to live where we want and an increase in pay and huge upgrade in equipment with AJX.. (if it were to happen)

AJX (or any job abroad for that matter) doesn't work for everyone, some people never really adapt to the life style of having all your duty and time off in a row, thus returning to any job that becomes available, even at the expense of a severe paycut. You need to really make this decision together with your better half and see if the life style is something that you would get used to, training is long, boring and repetitive and like I said before, the upgrade program is no different than what you hear about CX, EK, KAL and any operator in China, there are no guarantees and some guys do get shut down on the pre upgrade assessment and during training, having said that, there aren't many places that will upgrade their F/O's so you have to evaluate if it is worth it for you.

cptgoldenhills1

Dominican, what is like getting your class 1 med from the JCAB are they strict do they expect you to be in astronaut condition? Or do they accept the medical you have received from your home country if you are coming on contract?

The Dominican

For the pre employment medical think "NASA" the works.....! About 60% or so fail the pre employment medical. The JCAB will issue your ATPL in part based on your current ICAO ATPL, but they will NOT accept the medical from anywhere, you have to pass their parameters.

oicur12

Air China is now employing A330 captains non type rated if experienced on A320. Beijing base for the first 2 years than based at home.

Come join the fun, its a laugh a minute.