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Pilots of bankrupt Transaero look for jobs in South-East Asia

A recent promise of Aerflot’s CEO to give jobs to up to 6,000 people from Transaero, was rather a PR move to calm them, the president of the pilots’ trade union at Moscow Sheremetyevo airport says

MOSCOW, October 5. /TASS/. Many pilots of Russia’s second biggest airline Transaero, which has gone bankrupt, are trying to find jobs at Chinese, Vietnamese and South Korean airlines, knowing that not all of them will be transferred to Aeroflot flagship carrier, the president of the pilots’ trade union at Moscow Sheremetyevo airport told TASS on Monday.

"Many pilots of Transaero have started looking for jobs abroad, as not all of them believe they will be able to get jobs in Aeroflot," Igor Deldyuzhov said. "I personally know several pilots who are being transferred to an airline in South-East Asia. Some pilots are now looking into similar job offers," he added.

Deldyuzhev was speaking about airlines of China, Vietnam and South Korea, where air transportation grows and salaries are high.

He also said that a recent promise of Aerflot’s director general Vitaly Savelyev to give jobs to up to 6,000 people from Transaero, was rather a PR move to calm Transaero pilots.

"The company will hardly be able to adopt so many people. Many pilots have loans. How can they steer aircraft in this condition? Of course, they had to be calmed this way or another," he continued.

He also said that many of those who once quit Aeroflot for an actively developing Transaero in search for new opportunities and big salaries would hardly have chances to get back to Aeroflot. When in Transaero, they were taught to operate new aircraft - Boeing 777, Boeing 747, while Aeroflot did not give such opportunities at that time, and now an unspoken stance of Aeroflot is not to give jobs to them, Deldyuzhov said.

The trade union leader said pilots were also quitting Aeroflot itself for companies of South-East Asia. He said the salaries of pilots-in-command in Aeroflot were about 300,000 roubles (about 5,000 dollars), while salaries in South-East Asian airlines were at least 12,000 dollars.

He also said Turkish Airlines was demonstrating big interest in Russian pilots. "One month before this crisis of Transaero, they came to Moscow, rented an office and worked to win over [Russian specialists]. "They know about major job cuts in OrenAir in UtAir, and monitor the situation," the specialist added.