Quiet times

[FlyboyBen]

Whilst on a recent summer holiday to Greece I wondered what happened to all the pilots who work for the likes of Thomas Cook Airlines, MyTravel, Air2000, First Choice etc etc etc during the Winter months.

Surely the demand for pilots during the 'quiet season' must diminish quite dramatically? What do they all do during this time, is it a case of visiting the local dole office for 6 months for alot of them???

If they aren't flying regularly, how to they keep their hours up and licences current???

[Boeing 7E7]

Those of us who have permenant contracts have a much quiter winter, particularly if you just fly short haul.

During the winter, in short haul we fly to the winter sun destinations, which is pretty much the Cannaries and Cyprus. But added to these there is the ski flights aswell, from December through to March. So although the rosters are no where as busy as the summer, there is still enough flying to keep us ticking over. Sadly, because there are more pilots than jobs at the moment, some of the charter companies only offer part year contracts to new joiner where they work the summer months only - and earn half the salary.

Long haul is slightly different, and you end up being away alot anyway due to the weekly rotations of flights.

Hope that helps!

[A/P Disc]

also some companies sent airplanes and
crews away on leases for other companies.
E.g. they might be flying for an airline
in the southern hemisphere. I did that
for some months during the winter time.

Rgds.