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Foreign Carriers and the Military Reservist

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skyward80

Well-known member
Joined
May 10, 2002
Posts
345
If you're not a reservist and want to contribute to this thread, PLEASE do so!

I'm interested in working for a foreign carrier such as: Cathay Pacific, Emirates, KLM, BA, Virgin Atlantic, etc. I am currently a reservist on active duty by choice (the unit is not activated). Eventually, I'd like to join one of these airlines. Here are my questions:

1) Do you commute to your job?
2) How does your civilian employer treat time away from the company to perform military duties? In other words, does it count as unpaid leave or are you required to use vacation days? Are they problematic? Is your seniority or your QOL at the airline negatively affected as a result of this?
3) How does your unit feel about your job and any lengthy commute involved?
4) Do you have serious problems fulfilling military duties? If so, what is causing the problem(s) (other than a lengthy commute)?

I thought about posting this on the military forum. However, that forum is geared more towards actual military flying.

Thanks for the help guys!
Skyward80
 
Unless you are based in the USA, you are not going to be given any MIL leave from a foreign employer. There is no legislated protection outside of the USA for Mil duty.

You will need to take care of it on your own time and getting set days off on a junior schedule is next to impossible.

Good luck.
 
Does that mean that employees of Cathay Pacific at a US base enjoy the same federal job protection as a pilot at JFK working for Delta? I think I might be confusing US-based and US-owned.

Skyward80
 
skyward

Being based in the states with Cathay you actually are working for a US company called USA Basing, however, Cathay would make it "difficult" for me if I were giving up trips to do drills.

I only do drills on my days off and I ask for days off months in advance if I have mandatory drills coming up.

My drilling unit is extreamly flexible and I've known the CO for years, this makes it very easy to do both and still have plenty of time off.

Luckly, with Cathay I only work at most 12 days a month and get 6 weeks paid vacation a year.

It all is working out for now, but I have my 20 and will be pulling out of the reserves soon. (I'll really miss the flying and my squadron buds. :( )
 
USAB is NOT a US company.
 
You're right, USAB is technically a Vancouver based company owned by Cathay Pacific, however it must follow the US guidlines when it comes to reservists if it employs for a position in the US to US citizens that are reservists.

Just didn't want it to get to complex.
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the input guys! As far as I know, CP and maybe JALWays (via WASINC) are the only foreign carriers that hire American crews into subsidiaries to work for them. Anybody know of any others that have a similar setup?

Also, does anybody know somebody who is a reservist and works for a straight-up foreign carrier (no subsidiary type of arrangement like with CP)?

Thanks!
Skyward80
 
Reservists/foreign carriers

Most of the Indian carriers who are hiring ex-pats are offering 10 weeks on/ 2-3 weeks off schedule. Pacific Airlines in Ho Chi Minh City has a 6 weeks on/2 week off schedule. I think you can make it work if your unit will allow you to pack a lot of drills into a 2-3 week period every quarter. I finished 33 years in the Army Guard in 03 and my reserve retirement is my principal retirement now - 22 years at US Airways doesn't net you much in the way of retirement monies.
 

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