The Venezuelan flag carrier Conviasa is looking for Airbus A340 and Boeing 747 pilots to join its ranks. On Sunday, the airline made a public announcement addressing the subject. Let's investigate further.

Pilot shortage?

Conviasa, the Venezuelan flag carrier, has a fleet that includes their Airbus A340s (submodels -200, -300, and -600) and a Boeing 747 subleased as a freighter.

These planes operate diverse and odd-looking routes, for example flying directly between Caracas and Tehran.

To address a seeming lack of qualified pilots among its ranks, Conviasa released a short video looking for new pilots.

"We are hiring captains and first officers for our Airbus A340s and Boeing 747. If you're interested, please send an email to ingreso.pilotos.conviasa@gmail.com".

Conviasa is also looking for flight engineers for the Queen of the Skies.

Why does Conviasa need a 747 flight engineer?

Flight engineers are the members of an aircraft's flight crew who monitor and operate its complex aircraft systems. Currently, most modern jetliners don't need a flight engineer, which is somewhat of a relic of an older time. Nonetheless, older aircraft still need this position, which is the case with Conviasa's Boeing 747.

Conviasa currently has a Boeing 747-300M. The airline received the plane earlier this year and subleased it to operate cargo flights for Emtrasur. This classic 747 requires a flight engineer because its cockpit consists of analog dials and has a heavier workload. Additionally, the flight engineer monitors the meters for engines and oxygen.

In contrast, the most recent Boeing 747-400 and B747-8i don't require having a flight engineer onboard. Conviasa's Boeing 747-300 has a registration YV3531. Prior to flying with the Venezuelan carrier, this Queen of the Skies operated with five different airlines.

It first flew with UTA between 1986 and 1992. UTA, or Union de Transports Aériens, was a French carrier that disappeared in 1992. After that, the Boeing 747-300 went to the French flag carrier, Air France, which operated it until 2006.

Following its stint as an Air France aircraft, YV3531 went to Garuda Indonesia (2006-2007), Blue Airways (2007-2009), and finally to the Iranian airline Mahan Air, where it stayed until it eventually was leased by Venezuela's Conviasa. Here below is a tweet with several images of Conviasa's Boeing 747, released by Venezuela's embassy in Belarus.

Conviasa's fleet

Conviasa currently operates around 17 international flights per week. It puts up over 2,270 seats for sale on several routes to countries in the Americas, Europe, and Asia.

These are Conviasa’s international destinations available for sale on the airline’s website: Buenos Aires (EZE), Cancún (CUN), Guayaquil (GYE), Havana (HAV), Lima (LIM), Madrid (MAD), Moscow (VKO), Panama (PTY), Quito (UIO), St. Vincent (SVD), Mexico City (NLU), Santiago de Chile (SCL), Tehran (IKA), and Viru Viru (VVI).

To operate these routes, Conviasa has a diverse fleet. According to ch-aviation, Conviasa currently has a fleet of 22 aircraft, including three long-haul Airbus A340s. The airline also has one Boeing 737-200, 15 Embraer ERJ-190, and one Lineage 1000, operated for the Venezuelan government. Emtrasur has only one Boeing 747-300.

Would you be interested in becoming a pilot for Venezuela's Conviasa? Let us know in the comments below.

Source: Cirium, ch-aviation