Mr Bond

A friend at a cargo operator that does work in China mentioned to me that AA recruiters were actively recruiting at their training hotel (not sure how they did this) but he mentioned that they were offering interviews to those who had just gone through upgrade training or first officers who had the Chinese crew visa (valid 5 years). This sounds like a rumor and doesn't make much sense... but worth asking about. AA flies only one route to China, and the likelihood of getting a wide body as a new hire seems low. Is there a need for crew members with the Chinese crew visa within AA?

I heard that the requirements for US crews to get that visa have gotten more extensive because our state department made it more difficult for Chinese crew members to get visas.

CRJJ

Likelihood of getting a wide body as a new hire is not low, it’s just impossible. I think most junior 777 FO is a 2020 hire.
I have that visa and got Airbus, plenty of classmates with that visa as well, and you’d either get 320 or 737, period. Who knows after some 787 deliveries and a few extra retirements.

FlyGuy2021

Over the last several months, AA has been hiring about 10 cargo pilots per class. Mostly Atlas with some Kalitta, FedEx, Amerijet and ATI mixed in. Even with that, it is highly unlikely there is any organized recruiting effort at a training hotel.

There is no need for people with a Chinese visa. There are hundreds of pilots that would have no issue getting a Chinese visa, and we only fly a couple of routes to China anyways. The only pilots at AA that get Chinese visas are a handful of wide body pilots based in DFW and LAX.

As a new hire, it will be highly unlikely that you will be assigned a 777 or 787. Actually, it is less than highly unlikely. It is almost zero. Widebody time has actually increased significantly while narrow body Captain has been decreasing. Almost every new narrow body captain that I know that came from the right seat in a 777/787 hates the narrow body world and is bidding back to 777/787 as soon as their seat lock is up. It will likely stay at 5+ years to hold wide body at AA.

The reason that wide body at AA is so much more senior to the other airlines is all about QOL. AA narrow body QOL is not the greatest, but the wide body is pretty darn good.

Mr Bond

Do you think that you having that visa had any bearing on them wanting you and the other several people in the class that had it?

CRJJ

Absolutely not. My guess is our ACMI WB background was the appealing part, not the visas.

rockelino

How is it going to "stay" at 5+ years if it's at 3 years already? (WB junior FO - 2020, which is a bit misleading because we didn't have any hiring from Mar 2020 to Sep 2021).

FlyGuy2021

It dropped to 3.5 years a couple vacancy awards ago, and then went back up to 5. Those 3.5 year pilots that snuck in were Jan/Feb 2020 hires, and will be at 4 years soon enough and still climbing.

It had been ~6 years, dropped on one vacancy award to 3.5 years, and then went right back up to 5+ years.

There are only a few that are less than 5 years of seniority, and it is trending in the other direction.