Alexander de Meerkat

Bearing in mind easyJet are offering jobs to all ex-Madrid pilots elsewhere in the network, I am at a loss to know why a single one of them would give more than 5 seconds consideration to joining FastJet. Each to their own, but before you go at least spend a few moments talking to someone who has worked in Africa before making a decision you may later regret.

Craggenmore

....and so they should - these pilots left the original network to start the base and so should now return to where they originally came from.

If there is no room then the last in should be the first out to make way for them.

The End..!

gusting_45

Craggenmore.

They should and will, if they want, be offered jobs in easy. Otherwise cannot disagree more. What a load of bollocks, what about those evicted from their base to accommodate an ex MAD pilot. Where should they go, are they entitled to return to their previously preferred base thus evicting someone else. Where would this idiotic merrygoround end.

I've rarely heard anything more ridiculous.

Guy of Gisborne

Having recently flown in Accra on contract, I can tell you that the majority of flights into there are flown by non African pilots.
I have flown with "local" captains who, supposedly, have 1000s of hours. Without fear of being called racist, these pilots are dreadful. I had to pull them up for the basics and not just once! Their basic piloting skills and airmanship are virtually non existent. It's possible that these captains, with few hours on their current type, will be flying will FOs with hours totalling 250. Then we can expect to see incidents in that environment.
The local ATContollers are ok with 1 ac in the pattern. Add another or 2 more and it becomes farcical with pilots using "Jedi Powers" to organise the traffic for the controller who by now has lost all capacity!!
FastJet will be using local crew from 540 who currently operate ATRs. I hope these pilots will be mixed in with European type rated guys to keep them on the straight and narrow. However, pay for locals and Europeans will be very different and it won't be long before the local guys have enough hours to appease the insurers and the expensive Europeans will be shown the door.

Alexander de Meerkat

Craggenmore - I am not sure your plan is entirely workable for Madrid. It would lead to alienating the entire workforce and not just the Madrid pilots. You are now discovering what I have learnt myself - it is an extremely emotive topic and opinions are growing stronger by the day!

Guy of Gisborne - A wise and informed view without a doubt. The big unknown in all of this is who are the key parties within flight ops. It will be very difficult indeed to recruit a high calibre western Flt Ops Director and associated Training Captains. Is there really anyone out there who currently holds a top airline senior management or training position and who is willing to give it up for a chance African start-up? Ultimately, to get those people is going to cost serious money and a lot of silvery-tongued marketing. Even with that, it will be an uphill struggle. Clearly we wish to encourage the advance of African aviation, but to bring the practices up to western standards will be enormously difficult. Nonetheless, it is going to be quite interesting to watch it all unfold!

Bishop of Hounslow

The word on the street is that a senior manager at easyJet has just been recruited to be COO of FastJet.

eaglesnest1972

The greek boy is damn serious then...
Hope this will give some hope to the bus drivers currently unemployed
Btw, any info about which will be the recruitment agency?
Cheers...

skianyn vannin

lets hope its Warwick Brady

Alexander de Meerkat

I have heard the same rumour too, and if the rumours are true the guy they have chosen is a very credible and capable Trainer/Manager with much to offer a start-up Company. I have no doubt that he will amply rewarded and he will have his own reasons for leaving easyJet, but it is a high-risk decision indeed - very best of luck to him. Somehow he will have to build a credible training/standards system that leaves room for African pilots to advance whilst maintaining western standards. Keeping Captains will be hard, as the majority will be European initially - hiring and keeping credible Training Captains will be extraordinarily difficult. Stelios has passed Step 1 in recruiting a quality guy - now let's see if he can assemble all the other people required.

Nightstop

Chief Commercial Officer (Mr R.B.) & Technical Operations Director (Mr N.C.)also recently appointed, both have previously worked for easyJet/easyJet Switzerland.

Fastjet will initially launch from bases in Accra, Nairobi and Dar es Salaam but grow rapidly into other capital cities.

Nightstop

Bishop of H, you may not know who the CCO is, but I do . He has the same initials as Rob, but I won't publish his name (or that of the TOD) until the info is officially released .

eaglesnest1972

That's really a great news.
Any info about where to send applications?

angelorange

Have to say those comments from Guy and acknolwedged by Meerkat (a southern african animal now given a mock russan accent for UK aTV advertising!) seem a little broad brush. Some of the best pilots in the world are Africans of all shades of skin.

The ditching of the ethiopian B757 is an example of doing the best piloting possible when a hijacker is attacking the pilots.

Guy, which outfit in Accra do you fly with?

My experience of pilots from SAA, Kenyan, Ethiopian, Air Botswana and many other african carriers is at least as high as any I have flown wioth from EU, USA, UK.

Yes the infrastructure is difficult but things are getting better.

On the other hand EU pilot flying ability seems to be going down hill:

EZY's "woefully undertrained and fatigued" FOs quoted in this UK Safety report:

www.chirp.co.uk/Downloads/ATFB/ATFB101.pdf


AF447's FO and SO fatal reactions to unreliable airspeed and the Stall warnings,

AF447 inquiry grapples with stall-warning enigma

Thompsonfly's B737 stall:

Thomsonfly 737 stalled on approach says UK accident report

etc.......

Let's hope FastJet do not go down the Flexi crew route.

Boeing Europe

Does anyone know when they might start recruitent for Fo's , will they look for rated guys....? or bond you , when will the first flights take place??

whitelabel

Well considering the connection between easy and Stellios would it be strange to think that Fastjet might use easyjet crew over te winter to start up thier operation? During the winter we have crews available and I think some people might be interested in this adventure..

Lord Amberden

The 120 first officers being laid off over the winter aren't actually easyJet crew are they, so I would have thought that FastJet can just help themselves.

Dunno how they think they'll tempt skippers to go there though.

BALEWA

Lol..................

fade to grey

Ghana is great, if they sorted out a commuting gig I'd go (if I had an airbus rating)