LONGisland89 From United States of America, joined Jan 2006, 634 posts, RR: 0 Posted (8 months 19 hours ago) and read 5362 times:
Starting soon, one of LX's ZRH-JFK-ZRH A330s will be operated with WK cabin and flight deck crews. I'm told this is due to crew shortage at Swiss. I'm unsure of the duration, can anyone confirm on shed light on the news?
KaiTak747 From Switzerland, joined Aug 2012, 145 posts, RR: 0 Reply 1, posted (8 months 6 hours ago) and read 4817 times:
Sounds logical - Edelweiss Air is subsidiary of LX, and operate A330s so sharing crews makes sense.
I do not understand the chronic crew shortages with Swiss. I would imagine they are a good company to work for, and are not short of cash due to their profitability. Maybe somebody could shed some light on this.
LXA340 From Switzerland, joined Nov 2006, 2104 posts, RR: 4 Reply 2, posted (8 months 1 hour ago) and read 4457 times:
Quoting KaiTak747 (Reply 1): I do not understand the chronic crew shortages with Swiss. I would imagine they are a good company to work for, and are not short of cash due to their profitability. Maybe somebody could shed some light on this.
As I understand it has to do with the fact that when Swiss was doing financially very bad soon after it's formation in 2002 until 2005 the fleet and crew was drastically reduced. Then as of 2006 when the airline was recovering and developed into one of the worlds most profitable airlines a quite rapid expansion took place however the expansion was / is faster than the amount of crews that can be hired additionally you also have elderly crew members that retire. Also I don't know if this also is a reason however a lot of young crew members do the job for maybe 2 years or so and quite after which obviously doesn't help either.
saab2000 From Switzerland, joined Jun 2001, 1605 posts, RR: 12 Reply 3, posted (7 months 4 weeks 1 day 23 hours ago) and read 4248 times:
I was on the LX side of the company when SR and LX joined. About 600 pilots from LX were let go, myself included, in 2003. I was offered my old job back about 3 years later but by then no longer had my living and working permits for Switzerland and the company was unwilling to help with that administrative task and that was the end of that. Unfortunately. I would love nothing more than to return to my second homeland (not of my birth, though, so once a foreigner, always a foreigner) and fly for LX again. I am told it is practically impossible these days with the political climate to get the working and living permits, even for skilled labor.
So I watch the airplanes when I'm in BOS and JFK and ORD. Too bad. I miss them and they need me ....
If it were realistic to return to Europe to fly I probably would. But in most of Europe they seem to like 25 year olds with 250 hours and not 45 year olds with 10000. Yeah, they do have a shortage. I'm here to help!
LXA340 From Switzerland, joined Nov 2006, 2104 posts, RR: 4 Reply 4, posted (7 months 4 weeks 1 day 12 hours ago) and read 1926 times:
Quoting saab2000 (Reply 3): I was on the LX side of the company when SR and LX joined. About 600 pilots from LX were let go, myself included, in 2003. I was offered my old job back about 3 years later but by then no longer had my living and working permits for Switzerland and the company was unwilling to help with that administrative task and that was the end of that. Unfortunately. I would love nothing more than to return to my second homeland (not of my birth, though, so once a foreigner, always a foreigner) and fly for LX again. I am told it is practically impossible these days with the political climate to get the working and living permits, even for skilled labor.
Unfortunately the swiss prefer to give out permits to people causing crime instread and then everyone wonders why the crime rate went up drastically over the years. Hopefully a miracle will happen and you will get hired again
saab2000 From Switzerland, joined Jun 2001, 1605 posts, RR: 12 Reply 5, posted (7 months 4 weeks 1 day 3 hours ago) and read 1531 times:
Quoting LXA340 (Reply 4): Unfortunately the swiss prefer to give out permits to people causing crime instread and then everyone wonders why the crime rate went up drastically over the years. Hopefully a miracle will happen and you will get hired again
That is an interesting topic in and of itself....
I don't have it too bad though. I fly CRJs on the left seat in the United States at the moment and there are some advantages to that too, though they are not immediately obvious to the average person. So even though I'm just a 'regional pilot' and therefore barely a step above certain bacteria and algae as a life form it's not that bad. I certainly didn't imagine myself flying in the US or on a CRJ when I started in aviation at ZRH 16+ years ago but hey, it could be a lot worse.
I mostly just miss living in Switzerland. And I miss the calm, clean atmosphere of ZRH airport though I do get to enjoy that a few times per year as a visitor. So much more civilized than most large US airports.
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