Emirates
 

For those that have gone abroad to fly for emirates. What kind of background did you have to land the job?

Try pprune.org

Why?

There are plenty of current and former EK pilots here on APC as well as some of the best threads on EK without all the garbage/static of PPrune.

That has been a moving target for the last 13 years. At first they would not hire Americans, circa 2002. It took a lot of pushing in late 2002 and early 2003 then they finally started hiring in relevant numbers by the summer of 2003. At that time the guys were all high time major airline. There was a brief window of RJ pilot hiring before a 30 tonne rule was instituted and lasted for many years. Good friend of mine from ACA/Independence got the call right after getting onto the A320. Pure military, pure turboprop, or pure corporate had no chance. One had to have civilian multi-crew airline time over 30 tonnes, preferably B737NG or A320 and above. Also had to have 4000 hours total time and 2000 jet. That was later reduced to 2500 if it was all in a 737NG or A320 (read RyanAir and EasyJet)

Nowadays it has changed. I believe the 30 tonne rule is finally gone and turboprop guys are being hired. Not sure about the pure military or pure corporate being changed, but they like civilian airline multi-crew cockpit time as a preference.

That all said. Why anyone would go there now would be a mystery. What I said here back in 2005-2009ish was it's a good job for those of us furloughed from a U.S. major; stuck at a stagnant regional; airline out of business (ATA, etc); or bailed from your major early with a lump sum and want to work a few more years. That was because in those years the carriers in the States were in bankruptcy and doing little to no hiring. Things have turned around in the States now so the majors and some of the LLCs are a far better option than Emirates.

The other part is that Emirates was a different company to work for back then. It was actually a really good job in 2002/2003 and for a number of years after that. Conditions have changed dramatically for the worse since then though. They just chipped away slowly at the benefits and working conditions to the point that it is mostly known as intolerable now.


Typhoonpilot

Everything Typhoon said, though if you have an ATP with Airbus 320 or 330, or Boeing 777 or 737 type with time in the aircraft?

I'd say your odds of getting an email are very high.

You really.... and I mean REALLY should not consider Emirates. It has turned into nothing more than a slave ship mentality.

Those poor guys are flying upwards of 95 and 100 hours a month doing long haul, all night turns, short haul, daytime, nighttime/nighttime daytime mix that will sooner kill you without you even being aware of it..... all with the comment from EK that, "It's legal".

Total and complete farce from what it used to be when I was hired there a decade ago.

I was one of the lucky ones who escaped with my health mostly intact.

Think very very hard before going to EK. Marketing there is the best I've ever seen and they will make it seem like nirvana.

Just stay away from them. If Etihad is hiring (which I don't think they are), they'd be the only ones I'd recommend.

Kap
ex EK slave

Kap, where'd ya end up at?

They are getting desperate enough that they are searching Linkedin and sending unsolicited recruitment emails.

I think he's at Turkish if I'm not mistaken

Yes, I'm dodging bombs and avoiding government coup's at Turkish.

Other than that, it's a great gig!! :-)

Kap

Sooo.. not unlike driving emirates road through sharjah at 18:00?

They just called me this morning and left a voicemail asking if I was interested in a job after telling me I didn't meet their minimum heavy-time qualifications back at OBAP in April when I handed them a resume out of curiosity. Apparently they are starting to need people. I looked at their profile page here on APC and it was all discombobulated. It had old info and conflicting info about pay and housing. It said they were evicting people out of villas to move them to townhouses?! Any current info available? I've always heard they weren't worth it.

Go to PPRuNe and take a look there. After reading the threads on Emirates and learning how things are you'll never want to go to work there.

Very short of pilots. To be correct, many in company villas are being made to move to other company villas, as the leases expires of the original villas. Some had been in their villa for a decade or more and are being moved to "compound" like company villas. Some are townhouse like, some are villas. Luck of the draw. Many are remaining in their original villas and "opting out" of company accommodations and paying the rent via the accommodation allowance.

Rumors are 400 pilots short. Management is throwing out the concept of month on month off. Trying to buy some time perhaps for those submitting resignations. Will it happen? Every mgmt meeting with pilots, the subject is addressed by mgmt. Doubt it will happen until up to speed with numbers of pilots.

Come join. You will enjoy the 100+ hour months. :eek: Through vacation, training etc., there is always a way found to mitigate the 900 hr rolling yearly max.

Is it worth it? Depends of the definition of "worth" to you. No mortgages in the US, no ex-wives, no kids or just a small one or two (school fees not totally covered by EK), no wife......life can be good. A number of US captains are not leaving because they're not willing to start at the bottom flying a narrow body for half what they're making at EK, paying taxes, mortgages etc. Will the flying beat you up? It depends on what one's life style is like. Partying like it's 1999, it will "kill" you here.

There are many quite content here, enjoy the "adventure" and are planning to retire from it all at 50. Others with little or no retirement from previous airlines and over 50, might stay to the end.

In the end, it's an individual circumstance thing that will define if this is one's cup of tea. Bottom line, there are some that have no plans to leave, and there are some that absolutely hate everything about EK and Dubai. Like I said, individual circumstances.

Best response in regards to Emirates/expat job I have read. Same can be applied here, some people love working at Spirit, some hate it. Some love living in NYC flying for Delta, while others hate everything about NYC while living in their miserable crashpads. Emirates sounds like a great place to live out an adventure if one was single.

Thnx, but one thing I forgot to add. You are correct in your statement. If one has a young wife with a child or two, it can be quite tough on them. One would be away a lot with those hours, and need time to recoop. Meanwhile, young wife is dealing with many issues, and her mama ain't anywhere around to help out. It takes a tough spouse to endure the rigors of being a spouse of an EK pilot.

Just what I said a couple of months ago that a lot of folks said it would never happen...., what they won't ever allow to happen is to start parking airplanes:rolleyes:

The word from a friend in the training department is that the failure rates are increasing as well so only to lower the requirements is not going to do if people fail the training...., eventually they will HAVE to offer commuting contracts!

Boeing 777-300ER involved.

Emirates airline confirms incident at Dubai airport

Wow, doesn't look good at all..Hope everyone makes it out safely

Thanks god all made it out OK!!!!
Also not 300ER, its a Straight 300, RR powered!!

Windshear reported all runways, 110/21 with tempo 350/15 (runways 12/30). 49 degrees today, probably hotter than that, this is a common summertime mid day phenomenon here.

Eye witness friend of mine saw a "hard landing and tail strike, then then the plane skidded on right side (gear collapse) and sheared the right engine off. came to rest with post crash fire and explosion from right wing"

All pax and crew reported to have evacuated safely

More deets:

Accident: Emirates B773 at Dubai on Aug 3rd 2016, touched down during go-around without gear, aircraft on fire

I still think there are plenty of qualified pilots around that would want to work for Emirates. A commuting contract would definitely help. It would have to approach KAL or ANA time off, for at least what Emirates currently pays.

I am glad to hear everyone got off the jet that had the bad day. It will be interesting to hear what happened. A triple is a hard jet to crash.

Probe....

Maybe not as many as you'd think. You realise they've had to DRASTICALLY reduce their qual mins to get guys to fly for them? All you need if 1500 hours and some turbo prop time. Not belittling those with that qualification but compared to who they could get interest from just a year or two ago is VASTLY different. Social media as a stronger influence nowadays. Thank God no pax or crew were killed. Apparently 1 firefighter died during the rescue operation. RIP.

I think most here know how I feel about this organisation... Slave Ship Airlines. You'll be amazed most likely at the rosters as this info comes out... just like it did at the FlyDubai accident recently.

Kap

Another thing to consider for those unfamiliar with Emirates operations.

This was a turn around flight that was scheduled to leave DXB at 0250, which means a pick up time from home at 0035. I haven't seen the flight plan but I can almost guarantee the flights were scheduled for more than 8hrs of block time in a 10+hour FDP. This operation wouldn't be legal under FAR117 and most likely wasn't legal under GCAA regulations. This is where Emirates applies their special "variations" which essentially allows them to "legally" extend you before the trip even begins. Emirates flies many of these types of flights.

I'll be interested to learn what the rosters looked like for the pilots invoked, since many pilots are being scheduled for 100+ block hours and only 8-9 days off each month.

Major Kudos for all the crew in conducting a successful evacuation after such a grueling operation!

What is Candice's last name in recruitment? She left a voicemail and I can't make out her message, and she did not spell it. TIA

Pilots and possibly cabin crew were on a layover prior to returning to DXB. Not a turnaround as in the past.

It was a layover, however I've done this as a turnaround years ago on a narrow body floating along at .76 and we weren't even close to 8 hours block. A triple cruising a conservative .83 even less, with the only x-factor being DXB holding at peak arrival hours. While some variations are indeed questionable, this particular flight is bread and butter ME flying.

I just looked up EKs flight DXB-TRV for the 5th. Scheduled at 4:15 Block. TRV-DXB the 5th also 4:15 Block. So 8:30 total block if it was flown as a turn around.

Perhaps you were flying this route before the continents drifted further apart. (Jk I know they are the same continent)

I stand corrected on the turn around though. I know this used to be a turn around flight when I was at EK. These types of flights are the main reason I left.

Remove...

Not sure by bread and butter you mean... as in "easy" or more like, what they make the most money in.

As the above poster mentioned 8:30 block plus delays/holding etc... makes for an extreeeemely long night. And as I recall, before it was a layover, this trip was done a mere 48 hours after having come back from SFO or LAX or some such.

Did EK decide to be nice and make it a layover... or was it illegal all those years when I was doing it?

K

Define qualified...

Back in 2007-2008, when EK was doing the road show, I was the only person in the room (out of at least 100) that was offered an interview. Most likely because I was the only person that had wide body time.

Month on month off has been a pipe dream for at least the last decade. Will never happen. That would mean ceding control. During the last 18 months I haven't flown with a single pilot who was "content or enjoying the adventure." Three years ago there were quite a few that fit that description. Now people are tolerating or working on an exit strategy. Those that are stuck are making the best of it. Plan on 90+ hours each and every month. You get no credit for ground duties towards your monthly maximums. Now we get about USD$100 for a sim event. Might pay for a few trips to Starbucks.

I have countless friends who have been given 80-95 hour months during a month with at least one week of vacation. You get zero pay credit for vacation. It is really just a guaranteed block of 7 days off in a row. You might get 3 or 4 days off for the rest of the month. So you could have 10 days of vacation plus 90 hours of hard time and get the exact same pay check as someone with no vacation and 90 hours of flying. You are expected to go into Captains discretion if it's required. Duty times were just modified to increase the start of duty time to 1:25 before the flight commences. They cleverly increased the maximum duty times on variation flights by an additional 30 minutes. So net change is a negative. Give some take a little more. Productivity is king here and nothing short of a massive management change would alter that. Think loooooong and hard before coming to the middle east. If you want an adventure go to South East Asia. I hear Vietnam is nice.

Spoke with a Ryanair 737 guy yesterday who got a cold call from an Emirates recruiter. The recruiter why giving him the hard sell on Emirates, telling him how great it was and why his family would love living in Dubai. He said it was almost like a telemarketer call, every time he said he was not interested the recruiter would ask why and then try and counter with reasons why it was good.

Two other guys in this conversation (took place while on a lunch break at an interview...) have had friends who had also had similar calls in the past few weeks.

Sounds like desperation is setting in.

We were just talking to a fellow crewmember. Told him to stay away from EK. If he wanted to live in Dubai for the lifestyle, just keep flying for us and move to Dubai. We have LOTS of pilots that live overseas.

I hope you are joking. No sane person would choose to live in Dubai if any place in the first world is available.

Apparently on the 380, the roster is not that bad.... (yet)!

What is the nationality makeup of the pilots there?

You name the nationality, they probably have at least a few of them. I've met probably 30 different nationality pilots from EK, and that's just with casual socializing with them in DXB and abroad.

Their FlyDubai subsidiary operates as an airline within the airline. I have done three round trips with FlyDubai from DBX to Kandahar and Bagram. Worst airline I have ever flown on, with the last trip outbound from Bagram two days ago. The crew overheated the breaks on landing and we took a thirty minute break cooling delay before departure. I could feel them flying too slow and I think they nearly stalled the airplane twice.

Worse than that, the daily trip that was delayed due to the Emirates crash last week, the FlyDubai crew did not provide even water to the passengers during a four hour period. When they arrived at an alternate airport and bussed the passengers, the guys had been trapped on the B737 for fourteen hours. One guy, complaining about chest and back pain the last three hours was not provided medical assistance. When he finally collapsed walking into the terminal from the bus, he was taken by ambulance to the nearest hospital, when he died from a blood clot.

Go anywhere but those two places.

OMG! From everywhere......! Just about every expat pilot gig is like that....., and that makes it very interesting actually, I've been very fortunate to fly with pilots from very diverse backgrounds and I have learned a lot from many of them...., hopefully I've taught them something along the way as well...!:D

Huggy,

I've only flown EK as a passenger, but it's common to hear an announcement of 20 distinct languages spoken by the cabin crew. I flew with an ex-Saudia captain who said in 20 years he met 47 nationalities there.

GF