NEWS FLASH
Adria Airways is seeking to recruit both rated and non-type rated pilots for its Bombardier CRJ900 aircraft. Minimum requirements include an EASA Air Transport Pilot License, a total of 4.000 hours as captain with 2.500 hours on aircraft with a minimum takeoff weight of over 18.000 kg, knowledge of English and a recommendation letter.
Interested candidates have until August 26 to submit their applications. Further details and the application forms can be found here.
Probably they are quite desperate. They have up to 4 CRJ parking at Ljubljana airport even during morning and afternoon waves. On the other hand, they are leasing two aircrafts with foreign crews.
ReplyDeleteDon't understand how an airline does not preplan for this in advance when making their summer timetable. Or have many pilots left them?
DeleteThere is a huge boom in trafic in EU and lack of pilots everywhere. Pilots recruitment will be under high risk of operation in the future.
DeleteI guess they expected to easily add Saabs to the fleet and take all ex-Darwin pilots with them. But we all know how that turned out.
DeleteI expected this to happen. Other operators of regional aircraft around Europe are struggling with pilot retention and recruitment since the general pilot shortage means jobs are available on larger aircraft. When it's a struggle for many other airlines - including major carriers - to crew a constant fleet, it struck me as a bit naïve that JP expected to be able to grow at the same time. But I wish them good luck!
DeleteIf I hear fm JP inside, no wonder they are there where they are. Dont forget 4K has no experience in aviation management and to their own locals they dont listen. A Slovenian telling directions to a German, thats hardly accepted, at least not with 4K
DeleteThat sounds about right. I have seen it in other airlines. Intelligent management consultant type people coming up with nice-looking PowerPoint slides of what appears to be great ideas - in theory. But without a grasp of the complexity of the airline industry, those ideas often fail in practice. That's why you need a senior management that understands the industry. The management consultant types can advise, but not lead.
DeleteThey will continue to have problems... LCCs pay more money and they offer better schedule and faster promotions, which turns into even more money. Now that they hire people from entire EU, they will see that many of the new hires will leave after they get hours to go somewhere else.
DeleteVčeraj opolodne so bila vsa letala letela, pa noben za rezervo
DeleteWell, I wonder why they don't finance pilot education from the scratch with the mandatory employment for several years and do not limit minimum age. They would have bunch of pilots after year or two.
ReplyDeleteWell, they do have a good in-house flight school. Or, at least it used to be good. But, from what I'm hearing lately, the quality of training had decreased substantially over past few years.
DeleteHowever, I don't understand why you're mentioning minimum age limit? The only minimum age limit to work as an airline pilot is 21 years old. And lowering this limit couldn't increase the size of the pool of suitable candidates, as majority of airline pilots start their flight training after college, i.e. in their mid 20s. And that's why majority of cadet pilots these days are between 25 and 35 years old. And quite a lot in their low 40s. And there's nothing wrong with that, at least in EU that is. Flight training is expensive, hence it's a quite an achievement to earn and save close to 50k (+25k for Type Rating) in order finance Frozen-ATPL before one's 30 birthday. Especially if one takes into consideration cost of living, rent, food etc.
Regarding age and Ardia Airways, there is however a well known issue of maximum age limit for First Officers to be accepted at Adria. In the past, i.e. when the company was state owned, the Pilot union fought hard to maintain maximum age policy for cadet pilots. Co-pilots straight out of Flight School with a Frozen ATPL and cca. 250 flight hours who were older than 30 years had absolutely no chance to find employment at AA. Which is quite frankly retarted, if you ask me. The main reason for this policy used to be that the company will have longer time - i.e. return on investment - of employing a younger pilot instead of an older one. I probably don't need to emphasize that AA has a huge problem of pilot retention, and it's a well known fact that a lot of young pilots who are employed by Adria in their early 20s or early 30s, do decide to leave the company after their Type Rating bond period expired. All that has to do with not being tied to one geographical location, greener pastures, and all that.
My personal opinion is there should be no minimum age limit AND no maximum age limit. The pilot selection should be merit-based, regardless of a candidate's age. Even more, I personally believe an older pilot is a better candidate, since he/she has more life experiences, and is more likely stay at the company for good, since he/she is likely married, has children. And since Adria has decided to develop the Ljubljana base, a Slovenian pilot with a family is likely to stay at the company till they retire, since no pilot wants to work as an ex-pat, live their life out of suitcase and see their loved ones only once per month. Majority of these young foreigner, who were reportedly employed at Adria in the past year, will likely leave the company after their training bond expires, and they'll either want to go fly long-haul or go to work for some airline company in their own country or at least closer to their home.
But hey, what do I know … This is purely my opinion after being involved in aviation industry for more than a decade.