I'll keep this short and simple.

I'm an American citizen, born and raised in the USA. I have my acquired all of my licenses and ratings through the FAA.

I have been seriously considering working for a foreign airline (Middle East, maybe?). However, I'm a total newbie when it comes to certificate requirements.

As a US Citizen, which airlines would hire me with solely FAA certificates?

Furthermore, are there any airlines that will provide a "bridge" program with financial assistance to obtain the JAA certificates should I be offered a position after interview?

Thanks in advance for your input.

There are quite a number of carriers that will hire FAA certificate holders. Any that advertise for ICAO licenses should do so as the FAA certificate falls within the definition of an ICAO certificate. Some will make you take one written exam coupled with their training program to get you a valid license from their country. Some will make you go through 7 months of training ( Japan ) to get their license. The rest are somewhere in between.

If you have the right to live and work in the EU (sounds like you don't) then it is possible to get on with a European airline with a one year validation. In that year it would be up to you to take all the required JAA written exams. The process varies from country to country, but it should get unified at some point in 2009 when the licensing requirements are set to be unified.

A short list of some of the airlines that will hire Americans includes:

Middle East:

Emirates, Etihad, Gulf Air, Saudi Arabian, NAS, Air Arabia, Jazeera Airways, Oman Air, and RAK Airways

Asia:

Korean, China Airlines, EVA Airways, Asiana, JAL subsidiaries, ANA subsidiaries, Cathay, Dragonair, Hong Kong Airlines, Viva Macau, Shenzhen, Hainan, Jade Cargo, Great Wall Airlines, Yangtze River Express, Air China Cargo, and a few more

Europe:

Ryanair


Hope that helps,



Typhoonpilot

Hello TP,

I have been thinking that your information is so complete and informative that I believe you should consider writing a book on the subject of Ex Pat flying and get paid for this. I believe it would certainly sell. And you could do a yearly update as well with changes in the marketplace.

Whaddaya think? Need an agent? :-)

TP should team up with Koru...Between the two of them they would hav ethe ME and SP covered!!

He could write a book, he knows an incredible amount. But as soon as it was published, ALL the rules would change.

"If you have the right to live and work in the EU (sounds like you don't) then it is possible to get on with a European airline with a one year validation. In that year it would be up to you to take all the required JAA written exams".




The likelyhood of being hired by a European Airline without a JAR license is very slim indeed.

Waivers have been issued before because of pilot shortages but it's uncommon.

Attempting to pass all 14 JAR ATPL written exams inside of a year is a tall order even if you hold an FAA ATP. There's a lot of material in there that's not covered by the FAA.

Good luck.

AL

What does Ryanair require in order to hire a septic?

Thanks a lot for the detailed, excellent information. Much appreciated.

I too have looked into working in Europe (family considerations) but I just can't justify taking basically a year off and spending thousands and thousands of dollars to study for these JAA written tests, which are very very difficult compared to the FAA ones.

BTW I believe there is something of an exemption, if you have a large amount (not sure of exact figure) of PIC time in a jet of more than (not sure of exact figure), then you only have to do one written test and perhaps the flight test. Anybody know the specifics on this?

RCAC

3,000 hours on a type of over 30,000 lbs MTOW, with at least 1,500 PIC on type. In simple you could do this on most aircraft bigger and including the E-Jet series.

To add to the Chinese list, there is Air Macau as well.