spikemath

If you stay you are only 2.5 years from the upgrade, but if you go now you are theoretically only 5 years from the 767 upgrade. If you stay to upgrade and then leave later after the current job upgrade you're pushing the potential airjapan upgrade at least 7 years down the road. If airjapan has the possibility of giving you what you really want then you already know your decision, waiting really won't help you.

Edit: that five year number I'm throwing out there is from a pamphlet or brochure I recieved from a crew recruiter. I apologize for not referencing anything concrete with that number. Basically completion of the contract made you upgrade eligible or something, I'm not there so I don't know anything more.

The Dominican

@brhmky

The most important thing for you is to come and do the interview process..., try to come up to Narita and hang around with us on one of the watering holes and get a sense of the place, ask questions...! After you get an offer is when you have a decision to make and hopefully it will be an informed one.

I've said it before but I just want to make it clear that historically the upgrades have been happening at the 4-5 year mark but keep in mind that we don't know what kind of utilization ANA will assign to AJX going forward nor how will that affect upgrades....., right now all we know is that hiring will continue for the next few years.

Good luck with your decision.

Dejavu

Umm No lol

AsianSensastion

How old are the AJX 767s?? The contract says renewable until 65 (should be 67 now due to the change).

The Dominican

65..., they have NOT adopted the new age limit and I haven't heard anything about that.

The age of the fleet? Well, first of all we don't have any airplanes, they just assign mainline ANA planes to do our flights, we fly the newer birds at AJX since most of the older ones are doing nothing but domestic flying and we only fly international.

It varies really, the passenger birds are newer airplanes and if I'm not mistaken the last new passenger A/C was delivered just a couple of years ago so they are from 2 to 10 years old I think??

The freighters are older since most of them are BCF's so they tend to be 10 to 20 year old...., we do have a couple of 767F's in the fleet that are newer though...!

The Dominican

Another thing... The medical for the over 60 pilots gets pretty tough (even more so than usual) so renewable to 65 doesn't mean you will make it to 65. Many folks failing the over 60 medical.

AsianSensastion

Thank you for clarifying the age issue, thought I read an article about the age increase recently in the Japan Times. Perhaps it's in the works??
And thanks for the fleet age info. Nice to hear that most of them you fly are the newer birds.

AsianSensastion

Many folks failing the over 60 medical. You mean folks at AJX or at mainline ?? Does AJX have age related attrition like the majors in the U.S.?? Could that be part of the reason why AJX is recruiting so much ?

The Dominican

Mainline ANA has a contractual retirement age of 60..., I don't expect that to change anytime soon. Some of their pilots do transfer to AJX after they retire from mainline and fly above the age of 60..., on the extension of the age limit to 67..., one thing is the regulatory retirement age and another is the company policy.., like I said, I haven't heard anything related to extending the contract to 67 and to be honest with you, I would be very surprised if they do but then again, they keep surprising me over and over again....! Until recently I would have bet on ANA not operating wide body Airbus and recently they acquired stock on Skymark and with that the A330's they were operating so I'm not betting any money on any predictions around here

Attrition is due to both retirement and growth..., ANA has placed a large order of A/C's and they are in the process of expanding their market share..., and with that the red haired step children are expanding as well.

AsianSensastion

Thanks Domincan,
You're right it's impossible to predict what'll happen in this industry. I think an A330 would look good in ANA livery. Good news for ANA and AJX though with all that projected growth.