Trainee pilots in the cockpits with Jetstar's domestic flights

[Johan Z 0]

Jetstar flights flown by part- time trainee pilots

Cadets pay airline $10,500 a year for training

 

JETSTAR passenger services are being flown by trainee pilots with as little as 200 hours experience, according to the pilots' association.

The cadets are employed on part-time contracts which guarantee just $57,600 a year - with no pay rise for six years - and require them to pay the airline $10,500 a year for on-the-job training costs.

If they wish to resign after less than six years with Jetstar, their contracts require they pay up to $10,000.

Trainees under the program are currently co-piloting Airbus A320s between Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.

Most are unable to legally fly to New Zealand, where the requirement for commercial pilots is 500 hours experience.

Australian and International Pilots Association vice-president Richard Woodward accused Jetstar of trying to make young pilots "financial prisoners of the airline".

"This program is putting a person with about the same number of hours it takes to drive a car in the right hand seat of the cockpit," he said.

"Jetstar is creating a 'B scale' for pilots because they're part-time employees."

Jetstar denied the claims and said the program provided an "excellent career opportunity. In the past, becoming a pilot has been extremely expensive and has taken many years of flying in general aviation," a spokeswoman said.

"[it] makes becoming a pilot more accessible."

Jetstar said the program, launched late last year, would "deliver enhanced safety outcomes as it is based on ensuring pilot competency, with the pilots trained in Jetstar procedures ... from day one."

 

 

http://www.news.com.au/travel/news/trainee-pilots-in-the-cockpits-with-jetstars-domestic-flights/story-e6frfq80-1226050210268

 

Is this happening in Malaysia as well?

It's not worth putting people's life at risk.

[Mohd Suhaimi Fariz 2]

How do they expect cadet pilots to gain experience? Surely those pilots are already trained in the simulator before flying the real thing. It's not like they are thrown at the deep end of the pool now do they?

[Aaron Goh 1]

How do they expect cadet pilots to gain experience? Surely those pilots are already trained in the simulator before flying the real thing. It's not like they are thrown at the deep end of the pool now do they?

 

I think its not so much of the inexperience part they are talking here, its the fact that the trainee pilots are sort of paying their own line training and the creation of B scale (financial terms).....Thus, squeezing pilots of money

[Gavin Andrew David 6]

This is happening in many places , especially in Europe .

 

Simple supply and demand issue with regards to pilots.

 

Remember , there will always be a very experienced Captain in the left seat , nothing to worry aobut

 

By the way , do you guys know how much the LAE get when they are undergoing their training ? hahaha .. If you compare that to this , then it won't be so shocking !

 

Actually the biggest reason behind this , and this happens very often mind you , and I believe its a smart move by Jetstar , these young guys get their hours , before you know it , they're in Emirates or Etihad . Everybody wants to be a pilot and no one will complain initially , once they're in , everything changes

[Sri Ramani K. 0]

By the way , do you guys know how much the LAE get when they are undergoing their training ? hahaha .. If you compare that to this , then it won't be so shocking !

 

Seriously, it is a journey that never ends with that amount of $ for that many years.

[N Azman 0]

 

By the way , do you guys know how much the LAE get when they are undergoing their training ? hahaha .. If you compare that to this , then it won't be so shocking !

 

 

Compare also the lifestyle and dirty work rituals of an LAE in training, to the luxuries of the cockpit and simulators.