Airasia Launches 'so You Wanna Be A Pilot?'

AirAsia launches 'So you wanna be a pilot?' competition

By Kate Schneider, NEWS.com.au, March 10, 2009 04:27pm

TIRED of conventional recruitment campaigns, an airline has launched a unique competition to attract candidates for a job as a pilot. “So you wanna be a pilot? Simple. What do you have to do? Blog,” AirAsia's official blog says.

“We hope you’re putting your hands in the air because the blog will be giving the opportunity to 10 individuals to live their dreams in the sky.”

A light-hearted video on AirAsia’s blog shows employee Sunil Kumar, clad in dark glasses and a pilot’s shirt, walking behind two attractive flight attendants. It also shows him handing money to a woman who walks past, and pointing at a picture of a kangaroo.

So why does Mr Kumar want to be a pilot?

“Because of the girls, because of the bling-bling and because of the money, to travel to the coolest places... and feed kangaroos,” he said.

The video then shows other pilots talking about their aspirations, in a bid to inspire applicants with their own blog entries.

Entrants' blogs must detail why they deserve one of the 10 finalist spots – but there will only be one winner.

The final 10 will spend a day with a group of pilots at AirAsia Academy.

The competition has been greeted with enthusiasm by aspiring pilots and has been hailed as a unique recruitment campaign.

“It’s great that AirAsia is opening this window of opportunity to us aspiring pilot’s so that we can live our dreams by flying high,” entrant Deepak wrote on the company’s blog.

“This is awesome! I’m sure going to take part in it. I’m just worried about the video,” another blogger, Bryan, wrote.

AirAsia said the pilot would be selected responsibly and the winner must meet the same requirements as other pilots under the Department of Civil Aviation and AirAsia standards for pilot acceptance.

They are expected to be mentally and physically fit with good eyesight, at least 163cm tall, between 18-28 years old and must be Malaysians or Malay in origin, as knowledge of Bahasa Malaysia is required. They must also meet required education standards.

In Australia, would-be commercial pilots can enrol in a three-year Bachelor of Aviation (Flying) at the University of NSW, and must have completed 2 unit maths and physics in high school and have 150 hours of flying time. Keen pilots can apply for the self-funded Qantas cadet pilot program or enrol in a commercial airline course at a flying school.

Entries for the AirAsia competition open April 1 and close on May 15.

Air Asia will post shortlisted entries daily to their official blog.

Peter