Wataniya Airways Completes Recruitment

Wataniya Airways, the region’s new premium service airline, has successfully completed its recruitment procedures to appoint the pilots and cabin crew it requires to launch its operations in 2009 – attracting talent from all over the world.
Senior airline executives confirmed that the response from pilots and cabin crew candidates wanting to work at Wataniya Airways has surpassed forecasts, with the airline receiving many more job applications than initially projected.
A total of 15 pilots and 59 cabin crew members have now been recruited with staff joining the airline from countries including Kuwait, USA, Canada, Morocco, Lebanon, UAE, South Africa, Peru, Spain, Poland, Thailand and the Philippines.The rigorous selection procedure is an important step in ensuring the premium quality of Wataniya Airways’ unique service when the first brand new Airbus 320 fleet takes to the skies early next year.
The recruitment strategy adopted focuses on new acceptance criteria, many of which are being applied for the first time in the Middle East. The moment a pilot candidate makes an application they are given an electronic assessment exam to prove that they comply with the high standards to become a key member of the Wataniya Airways team.
This electronic screening process is followed by face to face interviews and meticulous psychometric tests designed and applied by international agencies to assess pilot decision-making and their ability to perform in pressure situations.
Wataniya Airways Chief Operating Officer, Captain Adel Al-Barjas, who is a highly experienced pilot with over 30 years of service, explained the aims of the program. “All of our recruitment processes comply with the highest international standards, but we have gone the extra mile with all of our candidates who have undergone stringent testing and training processes for both complying with all possible safety procedures and to fit with our business model focused on providing a premium service both in the air and on the ground.”
The comprehensive testing programme for pilots examines the ability, personality, decision making and practical skills to operate under stress and handle any unforeseen issues that may arise. The airline also adopts rigorous medical checks for any long-term
intoxicant-related dependence, which is a special type of testing that is currently not adopted by any other Middle East commercial airline.
Wataniya Airways has also embarked on the process of recruiting cabin crew members and has successfully recruited a world-class team to cater for all passenger needs in both the First and Premium Economy Classes on the new airline.
The seven-step evaluation program that has been adopted involves detecting logical thinking processes, individual and group interviews before committees, group exercises and assessing interaction and communication skills – all ensuring that cabin crew have the right attributes required to deliver the very best premium service to passengers.
Capt. Adel Al-Barjas added: “We have been delighted with both the quality and the numbers of first class airline pilots and cabin crew who have applied to work at Wataniya Airways. Our candidates were very excited about being a part of a new era in aviation and joining a ground-breaking premium airline in this region. In keeping with our premium standards, our recruitment policies have been tailored to Wataniya Airways’ needs.”

Wataniya Airways: Background.

Wataniya Airways is a planned airline that has its corporate headquarters in Kuwait International Airport, Kuwait. The airline was founded in 2005 and received an Air Operators Certificate in July 2008. It is due to start services with two Airbus A320s in January 2009 and will provide flights from Kuwait city to destinations across the Gulf and wider Middle East. The A320 aircraft will have a dual-cabin configuration composed of first and premium economy sections.

Wataniya Airways was formed as part of the Kuwait Government’s liberalization of aviation services in 2005 and was founded by Kuwaiti corporations including Kipco and Global Investment House. The airline launched a public offering of 350 million shares in January 2006, the equivalent of 70% of its capital of KWD50 million (USD 188 million), and expects to list its shares on the Kuwait Stock Exchange by the end of 2008.

Wataniya Airways' visual identity was created by the Peter Schmidt Group and unveiled to the public in May 2008. The tail fin of Wataniya Airways' aircraft will be purple, and features the internationally known symbol of Kuwait—the Kuwait Towers.


Destinations
Wataniya Airways plans on having the following destinations as part of its initial route network:


Middle East
Lebanon
Beirut
Syria
Damascus
Jordan
Amman
Egypt
Cairo
Saudi Arabia
Jeddah
Riyadh
United Arab Emirates
Dubai
Bahrain
Manama
Qatar
Doha

Fleet
Narrowbody Fleet Aircraft
Airbus A320 (3 on order)

Three new Airbus A320 aircraft will be leased and delivered in 2010 from Dutch-based AerCap Holdings for nine years.Wataniya Airways aims to have at least 12 aircraft, including wide-body planes by 2012.


Cabin
Wataniya Airways offers two classes of service: First Class and Premium Economy Class.

First Class offers 26 seats in a configuration of 2×2, with a seat pitch of 44 inches.

Premium Economy offers 96 seats in a configuration of 3×3, with a seat pitch of 34 inches .

Source: Wikipedia

Current crisis affecting crew?

Current crisis affecting cabin crew? From what I know many of the crew still carry on living as though the economy is still booming and in a golden era.
Many are now splurging on cars since the coe is down to $2. Many crew are still spotted wearing Rolex watches,carrying and buying Louis Vitton stuff.
As for cockpit crew there are smarter.They are snapping up apartments and houses since the prices have come down a lot. These guys are loaded with cash.They saved lots too,vacuuming up aircraft food....mmm..talking about aircraft food,BT here are starting to miss them 6th year into his retirement....hehehe.
A/c food used to urgggg to BT but now misses them after walloping the hawkers food day in and day out...hehehe.
If a crew were to consume a/c food during his career say of 20 yrs and don't spend much on food at nightstops,he can easily save about 700k. Don't believe right?
Many a steward,have saved 100k in the first 3 yrs of flying and 700k is within reach,provided he remains single and live a frugal life style. Lets not talk about those who saved and bought Lehman Bros bond and those High Notes sold by our banks. Of course they lost most of their savings.
Talking about Lehman Bros...ya I have heard of a few cockpit and cabin crew losing their pants.One even put in about a million and lost all...but then still got hope because that ex ceo of NTUC Income Mr.Tan is trying to speak up and help those who are in the process of losing their money. Better still if you help rally support for Mr.Tan who aspires to be our next elected president. Wah lau can you imagine Mr.Tan becoming our president? I like his desire of championing the underdogs.
Let's see whether he would stand for the presidency when the current presidency term expires. Good luck to you Mr.Tan and may you succeed in helping the S'pore underdogs!...hehehe.

An appeal from BT

Please don't mention names in your comments ok? Wait I kena sue jialat jialat den you know. Unkle here oredi retired and ain't got $$$ so be nice and co-operative.Read and comment if u must but don't mention names. Sorry for deleting some of the comments in my previous post. Thank u hor.

Longer Service, Better Rewards For SIA Cabin Crew

Filed Under News, Singapore Airlines
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SINGAPORE Airlines used to pay cabin crew a gratuity of $15,000 upon completion of five years of service.
This has now been cut to $10,000, but a bigger gratuity awaits those who stay on: Junior crew who stay 10 years, for example, will now collect $35,000 - $5,000 more than before.
SIA has more than 7,000 cabin crew and although the number who leave before or after five years is not very high, it wants to retain experienced staff.
Spokesman Stephen Forshaw told The Straits Times of this move to encourage loyalty: ‘We train and create good crew, so we want to encourage more to stay on.’
Tweaks to the gratuity payouts are among work and other conditions in a new collective agreement sealed last month between the airline and its largest union, the SIA Staff Union (Siasu), which represents cabin crew and other rank-and-file staff.
The deal, like the one SIA management also sealed with its pilots recently, will be for three years. They bring to an end this latest round of troubled labour relations for the airline.
A key change in the new pact for cabin crew: Higher retirement benefits for stewards who joined before 2004. That was the year SIA decided that all male and female cabin crew would be hired on a five-year contract basis. Before that, stewards received appointment letters and could stay until retirement, while stewardesses were hired on five-year contracts.
Under the new compensation package for stewards who joined before 2004, everyone - with the exception of very senior crew - will receive a higher payout when they leave. The ceiling is $115,000.
Depending on rank and age, the increase ranges from 7 per cent to over 100 per cent, with the main beneficiaries being those aged between 45 and 50. The idea is to give them a headstart in starting a second career, said Siasu president Alan Tan.
Mr Forshaw explained that the changes give newer staff reason to stay on, while providing renewal opportunities to those who feel they have peaked and reached as high a level as they can go.
An SIA stewardess with 14 years of experience, who did not want to be named, does not appear to think these changes will work.
‘The higher gratuity payments may encourage some to stay on, but the truth is, this is not an easy job and lethargy sets in after a few years.
‘We get many graduates who come in, fly for three to five years and then move on to other professions.’
But she conceded that the looming economic recession could make people think twice before quitting.
SIA has already been hit. In the three months to the end of September, profits were down 36.2 per cent to $323.8 million, compared to the second quarter of the last financial year.
Last month, SIA filled 77.5 per cent of seats on average, a drop of 0.8 percentage point over the same month last year. It was the 10th straight month of decline.
Some poor-performing routes have been dropped, and SIA is expecting minimal growth next year; it is in talks with the union to use smaller crews on flights with few passengers.
Officially, there has been no talk of cost-cutting steps. Siasu general-secretary Mohamed Hussain Kassim said: ‘If it comes to that, we will sit and discuss it rationally. But the management must be upfront and sincere.
‘If the company is in trouble, we as a union will work with management to deal with the issues. The priority is to retain jobs and retrenchment must be a last resort.’

Please don't advertise here please.

Ads like this one were posted in the comment column of my blog as well as in the chat box:

Anonymous said...
ROOM TO LET: 2 Brand New ROOM fully furnished near Airport tel:
xxxxxxxx contact Fast Kok.
Wednesday, November 26, 2008 9:57:00 AM

I will not hestitate to delete the ads cos this is not a classified ads blog.

What the fish!

It was a few minutes passed two in the morning and Hugh was absolutely drunk with too much boozing. He couldn't hold his pee anymore and it was bursting his bladder. Hugh staggered to the toilet in his hotel room,opened the door and stepped in. Suddenly,the door slammed closed behind him. All at once,Hugh's senses returned to his numb-skull head and realised he had opened the door of his room instead of the toilet's.
The door autolocked and Hugh could not get back into his room. He was standing outside his room along the corridor. Nothing wrong with that because it was not uncommon to find oneself accidentally locked outside one's room with the room key inside. We just have to call reception to open the door for us.
In Hugh's case it was absurdly stupid of him to lock himself out. He remembered vaguely there was a colleague staying in the room in front of his. Hugh,in between lapses of wakefulness and drunkenness,knocked at his colleague's door.
Jean opened her door,half asleep and on seeing Hugh let out a hysterical shriek........... "what the fish are you trying to do,you bastard!"Jean screamed at Hugh.
Why all the drama? ....well...mmm.....Hugh was naked that's why!!!
Now Hugh has plenty of explanation to do at the company's disciplinary inquiry. It's any one's guess whatever is going to happen to Hugh.

My buddy "Book Lover"

This is what my fren "Book Lover" posted in his blog:

BT is out for Holiday in Malaysia

I just read that Boh Tong my fellow blogger is off to Malaysia for holiday. I wished him safe travel. I will be going to Switzerland and Paris myself next week. It is holiday season. Merry Christmas everyone!

These 2 SIA cabin crew.

Read here about how Chief Steward Sonny and Stewardess Janice talked about their flying careers with Singapore Airlines (SIA).

The steward who was accussed of rape.......

The steward who was accused of raping his female colleague is now a free man and back in Singapore to resume flying soon.
After a thorough investigation including DNA test,it was established that the alleged rapist was innocent. Who did it then??
The "victim" has since left the airline and I wonder whether the case is closed or not? Perhaps,the steward would resort to suing the stewardess for falsely accusing him of being her rapist and also traumatising himself and family.

SIA steward accused of rape or is it?

The leading steward who was accused of raping a stewardess is still in Abu Dhabi,held by the authorities for further investigation. The so called victim is also held there to assist the authority in its investigation.
In order for a woman to prove rape in Abu Dhabi, she must provide at least two male eye-witnesses – an impossibility in most rape situations.
We just hope the stewardess does not turn out to be the accused because of perceived "sexual provocation". It is against the law in certain Arab countries if a woman were dressed in modern western attire. A woman according to the law there must cover herself from head to toes. Let's watch the following video whereby a woman who was gang-raped turned out to be the "accused" and given hundreds of strokes of the cane.

Getting tougher to be a SIA cabin crew.

No retrenchment of cabin crew so far and recruitment is still going on eg tmr 23 November at Sheraton Tower S'pore. Looks nice on the surface but it's definitely getting more difficult to become a cabin crew.
Last interview, SIA took only 10 cabin crew out of the 850 wannabes. They are now more selective and choose the creme ala creme. It used to be like 40 to 80 selected in a day's interview. The svpcc now conducts the final/management round and he will make sure he picks only the best.
Anyhow,best of luck to all those attending tomorrow's interview.....but be prepared to be disappointed.

How come junior cabin crew can...........?...continues

It's like this,if you don't steal or break the law then why should you be scared of the cops? So IFS you go and do an honest day's work for a good day's pay you should be fine. Be good to your crew and be exemplary in your conduct and work performance and you will be view in good light by both management and junior crew.
So senior crew don't be demoralised by such a small thing ok? Frankly,I wish there was such a practice during my days with SIA. I am sure people like myself would come up tops.

Driving to Malaysia.......

Hey guys I will be driving to M`sia from 2morrow morning and wont be back until Friday ok. So dun kancheong and be patient and wait for my next blog ok?
Aiya dun ask who I will going with la.....understood wan....no,no,not wifey but hehehe.......

How come junior cabin crew can...........?

Heard that junior crew like stewards & stewardesses are encouraged to report on Inflight Supervisors ( their seniors old enough to be their dads & mums) on their conduct & work performance. Although the company told the IFS not to worry as those reports will only act as feedback and will not be a deciding factor in their contract extention does not reassure the IFS at all.
Don`t mean to ridicle the system of letting juniors checking on seniors but it will have a big disadvantage to the company. It will only lead to senior crew being demoralised and wary of junior crew. It will cause a lot of unhappiness and distrust of the company.
Once I get more info on the above matter I will blog more about it.

Its good to hear SIA is not retrenching workers

Good on you mate! You have learned your lesson from the 2003 retrenchment exercise. Bad times get rid of workers and the moment business turns around you are suddenly and critically short of manpower.
So now even in this global financial meltdown you are damn scared of booting your workers especially the cabin crew.
In fact,I appaud SIA for going one step further and that's instead of booting the cabin crew at this time,it's recruiting more.
CEO Chew gambatte and we love you for learning your lesson and not following some ang mor ceos who instantly boot their staff the moment their earnings fell!

So f***ing inconvenient lah

I wanted to register for a seminar sometime late November online. This seminar is about the well-being of aging men. It's being advertised over the TV.
The frustrating thing is the numerous steps one has to take in order to succeed in registering and paying for the seminar. I know I am not young but I am more familiar with the online/Internet stuff than many people of my age (I am 63). The problem here is the cumbersome,tedious and often confusing procedures one has to go through just to register and make payment for the seminar online. Thought I was may be lacking in computer knowledge and so I got a friend who is 20 yrs younger and an "expert" in this online thing to help me. This "expert" also had problem with the online registering/payment procedures.
One wonders why can't they make it easier,I mean simple procedures to follow to register. Don't have to make the registration so complicated and frustrating especially for older people like myself.
Ironically,the seminar's target audience is old people like myself.

The meanest crew

It is not uncommon that hotels would sometimes find themselves overbooked or undergoing major renovation and therefore unable to check crew in on schedule or let them have their own rooms.
It is understandable the predicament these hotels are in and crew would cooperate by getting free meals or even compensated in cash if they have to share rooms . Often it will be 2 crew sharing one room or sometimes the hotel would put 3 crew in one large suite.
There was an ocassion whereby the crew had to share rooms because of some renovation works at a hotel in Europe. There was a shortage of rooms and so the hotel management compensated the crew with cash for sacrificing their rooms. They were put 2 to 1 room. The crew was happy not to say the least.
A month later, the crew who had to share rooms on that flight were hauled up to the office and accused of accepting "bribes". Someone,probably a crew who did not have the opportunity to get "bribed" was filled with so much envy that he or she complained to the company about the matter.

Talking about cow and her milk

Ya talking about cow's milk and the cow as well.... Whatever you do don't never take the China cow and her milk. It could be tainted with money sucking chemicals.
Luke my excolleague who is giving talk to sia cabin crew wannabes told me about these cases involving China cow & milk. Below are extracts from emails sent to him......

"mr. luke i am jenny,25 yrs old chinese, a singapore PR.
i see ur website and i want to come to ur talk.
i wan to be a sia stewardess. can u plse help me?
my handphone is xxxxxxxxx,plse call me."

Following that email,Luke phoned the girl and asked her to
pay the fee for the talk as indicated in his blog.
She asked Luke for some advices and also Luke's
phone number which Luke refused.
After getting all the info she wanted pertaining to the stewardess job from Luke, she did not pay a single cent.
The next time Luke called her to find out whether she was still interested in his talk,she claimed she didn't know Luke. She even told Luke her name wasn't Jenny and never had any conversation with him.

Another cow incidence went like this:

A China cow observed my friend going into a bank and withdrew money. She befriended him. Being a sexy cow,my friend admitted he was turned on. They checked into a hotel. After giving my friend a blow job,she told him she would go down to the lobby to buy condoms for him.
After an hour of waiting for that cow, my friend decided to wear his pants and go look for the cow. It was then he realised his wallet with a few thousand bucks was stolen.

Want somemore cow dungs? hehehe

Buy milk and not cow continues

Pan's cow also produced a calf for him some years back. Another headache and that is the maintanance of the calf. Now to begin with, it was  rumoured that the calf's father wasn't Pan. The age gap between Pan and the cow was like 30 yrs. So now instead of Pan milking the cow,she is milking him dry.

So the moral of the story is, If you can buy milk why buy the whole cow?

Buy milk and not cow

This one is from the right hand side bar:

 Anon8133: yah smart men steal sips of milk; they dun bring the cow back! some stupid men bring the whole cow back! smart bt!

There is this story about an ex colleague of mine who loves milk. Instead of buying milk he bought the whole cow. As a result he now not only has to feed and maintain the cow but also has to feed the whole family herd of cows.

Let's call him Pan. He now spends his time and money on that cow which over the years has become old and unproductive. Pan now and then would buy milk because his cow has stopped producing milk for him.

Pan is spending his retirement money maintaining that old cow and her family. They are sucking Pan's retirement fund dry,I was told.

I was told Pan is under the spell of some kind of black magic whose practitioner was the cow herself......to be continued.

Singapore Airlines charging for the special economy seats.

This is a good move by SIA to charge the economy class passengers for occupying the seats with more leg-room. This move makes it easier for the cabin crew who has to contend with some passengers who would demand such seats inflight, even when they are already occupied.
But the above means those who are willing to pay more (US$50 ex SIN) may be those who are not abled bodied or understand English. These seats are usually situated next to the exits and in the case of an emergency are they able to assist the crew to evacuate other passengers? These seats are supposed to be occupied by passengers whom the crew deem fit to assist in the evacuating of fellow passengers should the need arises. But what the heck,bottom line comes first right?

S'pore & M'sian Cabin Crew for SIA

There will be a SIA walk-in interview for cabin crew at Sheraton Tower Hotel,Singapore . More info here