Blog to Become a Pilot?

derg

derg

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Pilot wanted: No flying experience necessary
Thu Mar 12, 2009 10:04am EDT Email | Print | Share | Reprints | Single Page

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SINGAPORE (Reuters Life!) - If being a pilot is your dream job, one of Asia's fastest-growing budget airlines is seeking staff via an online contest, and no flying experience is necessary.

In a competition similar to the "Best Job in the World" contest to find a caretaker for a tropical Australian island, Malaysian airline AirAsia has launched an online plea for pilots, asking candidates to blog why they should get the job.

"So YOU wanna be a pilot? Simple. What do you have to do? Blog. What? That's it? Yes, you're reading it right. Blog," AirAsia said on its official website (http://blog.airasia.com).

The airline said 10 finalists will be selected, and they will take part in the first round of AirAsia's new pilot intake, which involves spending a day with pilots at the AirAsia Academy.

Bloggers will only be considered if they meet minimum requirements, which include being aged between 18 and 28, having a good command of English and Bahasa Malaysia and being mentally and physically fit, with good eye sight, the website said.

The competition runs from April 1 to May 15th.

In a spoof video blog entry intended to inspire applicants, airline staff list their reasons for wanting to become a pilot, which range from the flippant -- "getting girls," "money and bling-bling" -- to the more serious -- "this has been a lifelong dream as this is a very important and challenging career, where every single day is different."

On Wednesday, AirAsia's CEO Tony Fernandes told Reuters the airline expects to expand its services and remain resilient this year on the back of good demand for budget travel, despite the global recession.

(Writing by Miral Fahmy; Editing by Paul Tait)
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I don't let 10 dollars make my decision for who I fly with. I usually fly with airlines that employs people I know. I might make an exception with United after my last trip to SYD.
 
Bad publicity, but you actually do have to meet minimum standards as set by the government of Malaysia and you must have decent grades in school.

It's also just for an interview...
 
fly22 said:
I don't let 10 dollars make my decision for who I fly with. I usually fly with airlines that employs people I know. I might make an execption with United after my last trip to SYD.
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There's gonna be someone new in the SYD market pretty soon!

Help some brothas out, ok? :)
 
fly4food84 said:
...but you actually do have to meet minimum standards as set by the government of Malaysia...
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If you check around, that may not be a "standard" you would recognize as a "standard".

Qualified pilots are 10¢ a dozen. Even if Air Asia is planning ahead in trying to promote a cadet program, this is NOT the way to go about it. Who is managing this company ? Chimps ?

If this is legit, it is absolutely the worst cheapening of the profession I've ever seen. I've always had a rather optimistic, long term feeling about pilots and airline flying even in the face of the current economic situation but this is so beyond anything I can imagine that I'm embarrassed for Air Asia...and now am a bit less optimistic than before.

It makes Gulfstream look like a good idea.

I look forward to being proven wrong....just an internet joke that took in a lot of people...including me. :(:(

Someone give me a link to the youtube video.
 
Look at what the contest does, though. If you win, you don't even get a slot in their training class. You get to spend a day with their current pilots.

That's like promising someone an interview. Sure, you win an interview, but if you have no flying ability, guess what they won't do?

Move you forward.
 
bafanguy said:
If you check around, that may not be a "standard" you would recognize as a "standard".
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Their training programs aren't much different as far as flight time goes such as 200+ hours for commercial, except they go through hundreds of hours of ground school.

It's on par with a Regional in the US, IMO.

British Airways does the same am I correct? Hires cadets with almost no flight time and trains them the way the think they should be trained?

Bottom line is that it's only for an interview.

All they are guilty of is bad marketing. Actually, HORRIBLE marketing!:buck:
 
Don't forget too, they might have been given a quota by the Malaysian gov't to hire a certain amount of locals.

How many people who are really qualified speak Malaysian and English that aren't working for Malaysian or another SE Asian airline? And how many people in Malaysia can afford flight training, who want to fly and haven't yet?

If you've ever seen the CEO of AirAsia interviewed, he seems like a Richard Branson knockoff, but the ideas don't play like SRBs.
 
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